


Country Boys

by R_S



Category: One Piece
Genre: Alternate Universe - Farm/Ranch, Graphic descriptions, M/M, Post Time-skip Appearances
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-12-18
Updated: 2018-02-13
Packaged: 2018-05-07 09:22:17
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 37
Words: 49,600
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5451590
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/R_S/pseuds/R_S
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The one where Sabo and Ace have grown up on the farm, and have to teach Luffy the ropes.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Behind Brown Eyes

**Author's Note:**

> I do not own One Piece or any of its related materials.
> 
> PLEASE NOTE: Ratings and Warnings may change as the story progresses. Don't like, don't read.

Ace let the air into his lungs. Invited it. Needed it. And the air went in, hot and humid. Thick. There was no actual proof that oxygen had been taken from that air for use by his body, he exhaled so quickly. His body aching for something cool, something soothing. Nothing like that was here right now, on that balmy summer day in Dadan’s barn. 

The hay fields tossed like rolling gold boiling in a pot. Specked with no-name birds. Ace blinks for the dust and dirt on the air. They’d worked hard to stack all these bales, and now their time was theirs. 

“S-Sabo-” 

Black hair sticky with sweat and grit sticks to Ace’s forehead, almost in his eyes. He’s keening back for the other man who’s possessed to slamming the other against one wall. He’s startled the horses, but they’re quite used to such noises, and settle quickly in their pens. 

“Shhh, shh, shh~” 

They are, both of them, men. Twenty-one. Home for the summer after attending college courses in different towns. Ace at Grand Line Academy, Sabo’s school didn’t even have a name, but he’d come home so toned and sculpted Ace could only stare, until Dadan hit him upside the head and told them to get to work. 

“Don’t say you don’t want this.” Sabo’s flushed lips graze Ace’s neck, whispering into the other’s skin before planting a single slow kiss that lingered, as if it were on fire. 

Ace’s arms were around Sabo’s shoulders, hands flat on his bare back. They’d both been working without shirts all afternoon, bucking hay and chasing after the odd chicken. Sabo’s back was smooth and tanned. Ace knew Sabo used a tanning booth every now and then, he’d seen that picture online of Sabo arm-in-arm with a heavily made-up man. The sign behind them was a very good advertisement for ‘Bon-chan’s Ballerina Boutique’. Ace slips his fingers under Sabo’s rolling shoulder blades. Sabo choosing the moment to nip down, beginning to suck, to rise a purple welt he’ll get to enjoy for days to come. 

“Oh Devils and Sea Kings!” 

Gramps! Ace and Sabo separate, standing side by side with their heads bowed. A show of obedience spiced maybe with respectful fear. “What do you want, old man?” Ace asks.. 

Garp doesn’t admit surprise to show on his face, even though he wonders how long THIS has been going on. “Luffy will be here this afternoon, I want you to show him around.” 

“Luffy?” Ace’s nose wrinkles up just at the name. “Who the hell is that?”

“He’s going to be living here with us, I told you all of this in last month’s letter.” 

Ace thought back, really – he tried… but he couldn’t’ remember. “Where’s he going to sleep?” he finally blurts out. 

Garp has the devil’s own smile before he gives a hollow chuckle. “In yours and Sabo’s room.” 

 

~~~~~~~**~~~~~**~*~*~~~*~*~*~~~~~~~*~~~~~

Sabo’s standing under the spray of a good cold shower. Ace had been in no mood to continue their special reunion. That was alright. They would have time later. Sabo would make sure he made time. The blonde reaches for the soap and a cloth, lathering plenty on to work the grime from his body. He had actually missed getting dirt under his fingernails. A feeling he’s sure to absolutely loath in only a few week’s time. Reaching for the handles, Sabo shuts off the hot and cold water, leaning his forehead against the metal tub. The cold water hadn’t helped his condition. He was still hard, eager. Sabo growls in his throat, shaking his wet blonde head. 

*sshh-eek* 

The metal catches of the shower curtain were pushed to one side, letting in a cool rush of balmy air against Sabo’s side, followed instantly by the heat of Ace’s eyes on him. “He-…” Sabo’s tongue must’ve slid down into his stomach, dry lips not sure which way to open. “Hello, Ace.” Gray-slate eyes. Ace’s intense ire directed onto Sabo. It burned him, in ways that he wanted more and more. 

Ace is already naked, standing with bare feet on the fluffy white bath mat with a towel in his hands. He didn’t say anything, staring towards the floor, waiting for Sabo to step out of the shower and allow him to dry him off. Which Sabo did, accepting this small gesture as Ace’s apology. Ace never could verbally apologize to anyone, always had to present gesture. 

“It won’t keep us apart, you know.” Sabo assures Ace as the raven haired man dropped to his knees. Ace gently drying each of Sabo’s legs with long, caring strokes as he looks up from his knees. “Just another brother in this crazy house.” 

“Crazy old man put him in our room.” Ace pouts, discarding his towel to trail soft fingers along Sabo’s lithe legs instead. Burn marks pocket knees and upper thighs. Remnants of a fire that nearly took Sabo’s life, had Ace not rescued him. Some years later, Sabo saved Ace in much the same way. Ace having been left with his own burns to show for, years later. “Suppose we could sleep on the roof…”

Sabo leans into Ace as the other wraps his arms around slim hips, hugging them close. Ace’s desperation was half exhaustion, Sabo knew. Tired from finals, and jet lagged by his flight. They’d barely been in the door for three minutes, long enough to set down their suitcases when Dadan sent them to take in the hay. Sabo kneels, helping Ace to his feet. He’ll get Ace into bed. He needs to sleep. Whatever comes next wasn’t really that high on Sabo’s priority list, so long as he got to keep Ace.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~**~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~*~~

Sabo sat with his leg up on the doorframe of his and Ace’s room. Ace asleep in a single-bed under the open window, tempting what little breeze there might have been to come in to play. The blonde drew circles in the dust with one hand, the other behind his head, wedged half lying down on the floor in a way that might lend one to believe he’s taken a yoga class, but not gotten it entirely right. 

“You will be staying in Ace and Sabo’s room. It’s their room, so you behave yourself!” 

“Why do I gatta stay here? Makino says I can come stay with her and Shanks whenever I want?” 

“THERES NO WAY IN HELL I’LL ALLOW YOU TO GO STAY WITH THAT CRIMINAL!!!” 

Sabo felt the floor vibrating up against the back of his skull. The old man’s ‘lungs of love’ he’s musing, as several heavy thuds find their way upstairs. 

“Ow! Ow! Ow, ow!” 

Sabo unwinds himself from where he’s half sitting, half lying on the floor to stand properly in the doorway, one arm up on the jam as he’s staring very much down at the eighteen year old boy being held securely by one ear. 

Said ear was getting a little purple. 

“You will not complain!” Garp’s low rumble raised lines of fear on Sabo’s skin, and it wasn’t even directed at him. “And as for you, and ACE!” Garp shouts into the room behind. “Look after him!” 

With that Garp let go of the wriggling boy, turning on one heel with purpose before disappearing down the stairs. Luffy didn’t try to follow, only stood there rubbing his ear and grumbling. Sabo chews his tongue, taking in the sight of the boy. He’s skinny. Not wearing sleeves, just an old ratty red vest that’s been redder, surely? The gold buttons are scratched and chipped. Cut-off blue jeans all frayed around his knees won’t last long in the field, and he’ll want better shoes than those string flip flops.

“I’m Luffy!” Sabo blinked and the boy was up in front of him, grinning like sunshine and presenting his hand between them. 

“Sabo.” 

“Nice to meet you!” Luffy grinned wider, his face in real danger of splitting entirely in half. “Do you live here?” 

“Yeh, I do. Lived here for a while.” 

“Is this my room?” Luffy’s bounded past Sabo before the other could answer, hopping up and down like he were made of rubber, bouncing right on top of the bed where Ace is sleeping. 

The freckled man’s eyes jerk open, little purple bags underneath each one. “Who the fuck are you?!” Ace roars at the giggling boy sitting cross-legged on his chest. 

“I’m Luffy, nice to meet’cha!” 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~**~~***~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~

Life did not improve for Ace over the next few days. Luffy’s excitable nature made him stick out like a tornado in a china shop. He tore through the house at breakfast, clearing every scrap of food from the table before following Ace and Sabo out into the yard. He’d never seen a cow before, let alone knew how to milk one. Chopping wood was the same way, lying seed, guiding the plow… 

“Is there anything you know how to do?” Ace asks, throwing up his hands after Luffy picked up a broom and immediately didn’t know which end went where. 

Luffy giggles, figuring out that the bristles go on the ground. “Not stuff like this.” He says, flicking hay and dust off the landing steps. It kicked up on the air and floated there like gold. “I lived in my dad’s house a while. Didn’t get to do much stuff outside.” He says. 

“What kinds of things did you do?” 

Ace isn’t sure why Luffy’s silence stings, or why the downturn of his brown eyes chills his blood. He turns to Sabo, big eyes to match his. Sabo stares at the back of Luffy’s head. Black locks that look so much like Ace’s hair. The boy’s neck plays host to scars, some thick, some thin… rope burns… He and Ace exchange a look. They’d seen a lot of people come and go off this little farm in the middle of nowhere, so far off the frontier that law and crime sleep together, breeding devils under the summer sky. 

“Hey, yo.” Sabo gentle voice reaches Luffy, and the younger’s eyes come up. The blonde’s taking a little metal flask from his trouser pocket. Unscrews the lid before continuing. “You lived at your dad’s a while, yea? Bet you lived there all your life? Did you know, when you stay in someone else home, share their bread, and their drink, you become family?” 

Luffy blinks, and some of the webs behind his eyes seem to clear. “N-no. I didn’t know that.” 

Sabo puts the little metal spout to his lips, pulling at the amber liquid inside. “Paa!” he makes a face after he’s drunk. Roo’s Special Blend is what everyone drank around these parts, because Roo knows damn well how to brew a kick. The blonde grins before handing the flask to Luffy. “Drink up, Lu!” he invites, waving his hand. 

“We’re brothers now, just so you know, once you drink that.” Ace says, wagging his finger in Luffy’s direction. 

Luffy smiles. “Brothers?” he muses. The smile that comes to him is blinding, irradiating his own heart and soul in that sort of way that takes the breath from a person. “Never had brothers before.” And he tips back the flask, fiery liquid burning a trail down into his gut. He swallows twice before gasping, handing the flask off to Ace. 

“Oooh, look at 'im go!” Ace laughs, weighing what was left of the liquor. He takes a long drink, capping it after. “Not bad, Lu. Not bad.”


	2. Rules & Perks

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I do not own One Piece or any of its related materials.

Ace’s eyes slip open, only to find the room around him still dark. The freckled man grumbles, turning over in his bed. Springs complaining like rusty old women. He expected to lose sleep, the time difference from the University to home nearly three hours. Letting out a long breath, Ace relaxes down into the pillow. 

“nn – No. Don’t. Don’t go yet…” 

Only because of the thin slivers of white light creeping in around the edges of the curtain could Ace actually see far enough into the room to see Luffy turn over onto his back on his cot. Blanket hanging half off his legs. Reaching with both arms into the empty spaces above and around him. Groping at nothing. 

“DON’T LEAVE ME ALONE!!” 

This time, Luffy woke Sabo. The blonde sitting bolt upright in his bed, which squawked as if he had strangled it. The whites of Sabo’s eyes were clear and beautifully bale in the gentle light gathering about the room. Dawn was in fact, not far away. Luffy began to thrash on his cot, pillow falling to the floor. Sabo was up out of bed, and so was Ace. The two of them standing on either side not knowing what to do. Should they wake him? Should they try and hold him still? Should they run to get Dadan? 

Ace kneels as Luffy’s reaching wildly in every direction, hitting his hands on things and making them bleed. Sabo’s breath catches in his chest when Ace wraps his own arms up with Luffy’s, holding them close and getting smears of red on a bare chest. “Luffy?” Sabo’s only just settled back on his heels when Luffy opens his eyes to Ace’s voice. Chest heaving, and sweat pouring from him. Ace leans over the younger man, catching both brown eyes that had previously been held vice shut. “Are you awake?” 

Luffy’s eyes are wide, staring. Sabo’s sure Luffy is one-hundred percent not awake… or, if he is, he’s not ready to admit it. “Ace.” Sabo leans forward to place a soft kiss on his lover’s warm lower lip. Ace tastes like sleep. Illusive, and very-much wanted. As Sabo draws away, he scoops his hands under Luffy and his blankets. Together Ace and Sabo lift the younger, all moving to one bed to lie as best they could upon it, with Luffy sandwiched between. 

Ace buries his nose in Sabo’s blonde hair, breathing in the other man as he holds tightly to the knot of Luffy’s arms. The younger, who’s mop of black tangles is just under Ace’s Chin, has stopped talking in his sleep. Stopped flailing, but that didn’t mean it would stay that way. Sabo presses bare skin to Luffy’s back, letting the other man’s warmth mingle with his. 

An hour or so later, Luffy wakes to find Ace and he belly to belly. Sabo spooned up against his rear and lower back. Both had their arms around him, holding him. Warm and secure. 

~~~~~~~~~~***~~~~~*~~~~~~~~**~~~~~~~~~~~~*~~~~~*~~~~~~~

Sabo was half submerged inside the blackened, greasy, smelly, archaic engine compartment of the one and only tractor to be found on Dadan’s farm. Dogra lying on top of the compartment lip, handing down tools as the other asked for them. 

“The nine-and-three-quarters… thanks.” 

“So how’s the new kid? Keeping you and Ace good and cock-blocked?” Chuckled the little man in his turban. His too-tight turban, if Sabo had anything to say about it. 

“It’s none of your business.” Sabo blankly replies, working loose a worn out fitting to be replaced with a newer (but not new) one. 

“Have you even done it once?” The wrenches clank as Dogra spoke under his breath. “I mean… you tell him you love him, then get on a plane for that top-secret school. Now you’re both back together and you get landed with a roommate.” The little man shakes his head. “Garp made us swear we’d make sure Luffy stayed in yours and Ace’s room… I’m sorry, Sabo. Really. You’ve just got no luck in getting lucky….” 

“I told you, it’s none of your busi…” Sabo’s arm stops working up and down. “Garp made sure you all knew Luffy was supposed to stay in our room?” 

Dogra nodded at Sabo’s inquiring face through the gaps of rusted engine and dripping oil. “Luffy has to sleep inside the house, in your guys’ room, every night. That’s the rule.” 

~~***~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*~~~~~

Ace came into the dining room covered head to toe and mud. Thick, green-tinged, stinky, sticky mud. Sabo was already standing next to the coatrack covered in his own coating of engine grease and metal filings. He gives the other a weak smile, indicating the upstairs bathroom… until Luffy comes in slipping and sliding in wet muddy sandals. He falls on his face, splattering muck all over the walls and furniture. 

“Is that you three?” Dadan’s voice floated in from the kitchen, and a moment later she’s entered the room with a stewpot held in her hands. “GO CLEAN YOURSELVES UP!” Shrieks the curly haired woman, apron stretched over an imposing figure. “WHAT do you THINK you’re DOING?! DRAGGING FILTH through house like THAT! OUTSIDE!!!” 

Ears ringing, all three boys scramble right back out the door. There was a hose around that side of the old rabble-shabble house. An old thing itself, all made of brass with a sprayer on the end that leaked. The water colder than Drum City in winter. Ace and Sabo both stripped, skivvies and socks joining the pile of soiled clothes near the door.

Luffy just stood there, eyes wide while Sabo’s cranking the water to full. 

Sabo grits his teeth, the freezing water hitting his skin with a violence. Ace shouts when the water touches him, shaking his head and scrubbing his hands over himself. When the water got to Luffy, all thoughts of modesty were a thing of the past. The water was that cold. Luffy stripped off his muddy shorts and vest, just to get away from the water that soaked into them. In less than a minutes they were washed and hurrying, dripping and freezing, for the screen door. They’re met with Dadan’s stern scowl, one strong finger pointing towards the table where she’d brought them down towels and a change of clothes. After they’ve thanked her, Dadan returns to the kitchen. 

“What did you do all day, Sabo?” Luffy asks, dressing with his brothers. 

“Tractor repairs.” The blonde stretched his arms up over his head. 

“We need a new one.” Ace says, sitting down beside Sabo and rubbing a hands up the other’s spine. 

Luffy notices how Ace’s grey eyes linger on Sabo. How he traces the other delicately with his stare, memorizing what existed of the other. Sabo leaned into Ace’s gentle strokes up and down his back, and Luffy is distracted by Dadan coming back in. 

“You two! Sit up straight!” Barks the big woman. Dadan’s beady green eyes rove dangerously over all three until she huffs, setting down a roasting dish. The woman’s red hair bounces with curl as she crosses both arms. “Eat, I know you’ve been working all day. Oh, and Sabo,” she says, lowering her voice as Ace and Luffy dive into their dinner. “You’ll take these two shopping tomorrow, I’ll get you some money and a vehicle.”

“Sh-?” Sabo gasps, “But…. what….”

Dadan gives the blonde boy a stern look that shuts him right up. He knows better than to argue of the task he’s been assigned, to this day he’s never once won an argument against the woman. She leaves Sabo tongue tied, and he returns his attention to the table. 

“What’s got you so white?” Luffy’s laughing, poking one finger into Sabo’s numb cheek. 

“Oh, nothing. We’re going shopping tomorrow, that’s all.” 

Ace bit down on the tines of his fork, teeth scraping and grating against metal. Luffy laughs twice as hard after Ace’s spat out the offending cutlery, causing it to land solidly in the table in front of them. 

~~~~**~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~***~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*~~~~~

Luffy and Sabo were tucked into a corner of the dining room playing Checkers. Well, Sabo was teaching Luffy how to play. He’d never seen a Checkers board before. 

“He should be here any minute.” Dadan explained, “I don’t want to owe him a thing, so don’t drive like a lunatic!” Shaking her finger at Ace exaggeratedly. 

The raven haired young man gave a sly grin. “Did you heard that Sabo, I’m borrowing a lunatic’s car, but I can’t drive like a lunatic?” 

“Who’s a lunatic?” Luffy asks, watching Sabo stack a piece on top of his own. 

“He’s a blacksmith, best one in town. Comes to shoe the horses every now and then.” Sabo grins wide, showing off the rounded gap in his tooth. “Drives this beast, a racing demon, the White Wado Ichimonji.” 

“He’s not going to lend us the Wado.” Ace calls over to the table as stars were bursting from Luffy’s eyes. Ace’s eyebrow ticks. “We’ll probably be driving that old rusted out Yubashiri he’s always trying to sell.” 

“Well it’s not!” Dadan put her foot down hard on the floor so that the picture frames on the walls shook. “You’ll be driving the Shusui, and you better behave yourselves. You’ll be home by dinner, and look after each other.” 

Ace rubs at his neck, Dadan’s orders falling into place in his brain through years of practice. 

“Have you ever been to Paradise, Luffy?” Sabo asks, pushing a piece across the board. Luffy shakes his head, black bangs wafting with the motion. Sabo nods, but doesn’t elaborate. A lot of folks in these parts avoid the cities like the plague. Places for theft and drug abuse and sin. Sabo can count on one had the times he had been to Paradise, because something always happened.


	3. Secret!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I do not own One Piece or any of its related materials.

Luffy had his mouth full of biscuit and sausage, both russet eyes tracking the many moves Sabo made across the board. They made no sense to him, and when the blonde began stacking red and black chips one on top the another he blinked in confusion, feeling his brain starting to hurt from having to think too hard. Lucky for Luffy, he can hear the crunch of wide wheels making way up the gravel drive. Sabo abandons their game, quietly. Up and standing beside Ace as the other glowers out the kitchen window. 

“Don’t you even think about starting anything with him.” Dadan’s growl in Sabo’s ear, handing the young man an envelope and paper list. “…and take care of Luffy.” 

Sabo nods, as he is expected to. Dadan worries too much. She always has. He pockets the envelope. “Everything fine.” He mutters, watching through narrowed eyes at the blue-silver Shusui coming to a solid stop in front of the house. 

Luffy chewed and swallowed. The tension breaking against his ankles like a wave; or like a heavy wind before a storm. Sabo’s fingers lace with Ace’s as they stand there, shifting his weight from one foot to the other. Heavy boots clomp on the wooden porch outside before the screen screams back, a man with a mane of forest green hair striding across the threshold. 

“Zoro!” 

“Luffy!?” 

Dadan’s eyes dart from one man to the other, a squint in them looking for trouble. Ace watches Zoro. The green haired blacksmith standing there in ripped jeans and a blue tee-shirt. His hand still on the door handle. Zoro’s arms are bare, copper colored skin over thick corded muscle. His left eye is missing, lost in a famous racing accident nearly two years before. He’d been stricken of his professional license to race after that. 

Zoro stayed quiet, good eye the same jade-green as his hair tracking over the four other faces in the room. After a moment, he grins. “Ha!” He barks. “Ha-ha! Good to know your luck hasn’t run out yet, Luffy.” The man turns a broad shoulder. Turns to face Ace. “Don’t crash my car.” One narrowed eye boars through the freckled man, Sabo glaring over his shoulder. 

Ace snatches the keys from Zoro’s hand, and the other leaves. 

~~~~~~**~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~~~~~~~***~~~~~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~~~

Luffy’s eyes are all stars for the glittering Shusui they were getting to ride in. It had black leather seats with their own heating and cooling, detailed jade inlay along the front dash with state of the art drive-assist. A pin of green traced through a blue-midnight paintjob like a suggested spine. Ace isn’t all that impressed with the Shusui, because he’s driven the Kitetsu. 

“Ah, thank the devil!” Dogara’s come out of the barn as Zoro’s clomped up to it, ferrying tools slung over one shoulder in a black duffle. The man’s thrown a cold beer, which the blacksmith catches with a slanted grin. 

“BEHAVE yourselves!” Dadan’s parting blessing is clearly heard over the growl of six sleek cylinders. 

After Luffy’s climbed onto the back bench seat and Sabo’s slid into the passenger front, Ace idles. He can’t look away from Zoro and Dogara? The both of them slugging back beer, guffawing at some damn thing one of them said. “How do you know that guy, Lu?” Ace asks. 

Sabo reaches for his phone, flipping through music choices as Ace begins to negotiate the vehicle down their driveway. “Zoro?” Luffy asks, his head appearing between the two front seats. At that moment the car passes right in front of the pair standing next to the barn. Sabo notices the way Luffy’s eyes lilt, the way they remained on the blacksmith’s tanned features. “Shi- shi- shi- shi! It’s a secret.” 

“A secret?” Ace parroted back. 

“Yup!” 

“Why?” Ace demanded, turning onto the highway. 

Luffy’s flumped back on the cushions, crossing lithe legs up on the bench seat and holding onto his sandals. Rocking backward and forward, humming. “What’s Paradise like?” 

“Don’t change the subject!” 

Ace’s neck had gone red, and a vein was ticking just above his eye. Sabo sighs to himself. Of course Ace wouldn’t want Luffy and Zoro to have any sort of past connection. Ace and Zoro having broken up the way they had. Sabo’s palm rests down on the back of Ace’s hand as he’d clutching it white on the gear shift. Pressing warmly and lacing their fingers together. “Paradise is full of people.” Sabo tells Luffy, Ace forcing his breathing to return to normal as he squeezes back at Sabo’s offer of support. “Good people, bad people. So many people you wouldn’t think they could fit any more, and more come every day.” 

“What are we doing?” Luffy’s still rocking on the bench, eyes open for the sunlight. “Are we gonna fight somebody?” 

Ace is glad the road is straight and boring. It made his shock unnoticeable. Sabo turns in his seat. “Why would we be going to fight somebody?” 

Luffy stared back at Sabo with wide eyes, like he’d been caught by a spotlight. “No reason.” 

Sabo blinks, but turns back around. Ace and he glancing briefly at one another. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~**~~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~

“Well, there it is.” Ace had brought the car to a stop at an overlook. Below them, about half a mile away, was the city of Paradise. Luffy had gotten bored and fallen asleep a while ago, snoring wetly against the window while Sabo and Ace stretched their legs. 

“Do you think they remember you?” Sabo asks, winding one arm around Ace’s hips and holding him close. 

“They remember.” Ace laughs, relaxing into his lover’s grip. “You know, I never wanted to leave them.” 

Sabo’s hands press up under Ace’s shirt, lying flat on firm abdominals. “I know.” Sabo leans in to place a kiss on the nape of the other’s neck. Tasting him on his lips and breathing him in. He remembers the day, years before, when Ace came to live on the farm. Bloody and bruised, like he’d been drug there at the end of a rope. He would mutter about his family, the family that – in the end – conceded to Vice Admiral Garp’s custody, and handed Ace over. “Do you want to see them again?” 

Ace shivers for the rake of Sabo’s fingernails on his skin. “Yea.” Ace keens, hands jerking down to take hold of Sabo’s wrists, impeding the blonde’s progress of removing his shirt. “I want to take you home, to meet my Pops.”


	4. Blonde Men

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I do not own One Piece or any of its related materials.

“WHohoa!” Luffy’s not out of the car five seconds before he’s bent nearly in half, staring up the side of a building. His voice echoing off the surrounding stone walls, bouncing back as a many headed Luffy. One that might have been able to look in every direction at once. Not that the real Luffy wasn’t doing just that. 

“Oi, over here… you’re gonna make yourself dizzy doing shit like that.” Ace has a handful of Luffy’s faded red vest, pulling the other along as he and Sabo locate the pay box for their parking spot. Letting himself be tugged along, Luffy tries to see everything he can see. He is under the sky. In step with hundreds of people all sweeping along the streets. The noise was incredible, so loud that Luffy cannot hear Sabo talking to Ace with a map unfolded in his hands. Ace’s eyes are all screwed up, and he keeps looking up and down the road. There’s a throng of people standing around not far away, muttering excitedly. Luffy gravitates towards that place, pulled there by a curiosity. A heart pounding. As small as he is, and skinny, Luffy weaves and winds – all the way to the front of the crowd. 

“Usopp…” Luffy’s small word fell out of him. A sigh from his very soul. 

“Ladies and gentlemen! Children! Mothers! Brothers! Allow me, yes… me, Captain Usopp! to tell you – a story!” Usopp’s long nose swivels under an enormous red hat… it might have been a hat. Looked more like a bag. “A story about freedom! Escape! Of sorrow and honor! Abo—ab about…” People whispered behind their hands as their storyteller stuttered and fell silent. His beetle-black eyes stretched wide, staring forward at a short boy in cut offs and sandals. Long heartbeats bruise Luffy’s lungs, unable to draw breath to speak. The hum of an angry crowd is the only thing that breaks eye contact between them. When Usopp turns and crows over a shocked audience “Let me tell you a story!” He stood tall before them. Tears have appeared in Captain Usopp’s eyes, rolling nearly invisible down brown cheeks. There is a smile on his lips, when the gathered crowd cheers. 

Luffy withdrew then. That way, no one need know. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~**~~~~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~**~~~~

Sabo’s got his hand up against the sun, scanning address after address on the buildings they passed. Ace busy twirling around, re-remembering what he had half forgotten from an earlier childhood. He’s just noticed Luffy’s not standing next to them. In fact, he’s halfway to having a panic attack about it when the younger slips back into view like he’d been there all the time.

“You sure you remember the place?” Sabo asks Ace, the blonde shooting one hand out to grab the others’ shoulder. Stopping to wait for a crossing walk. 

Luffy worms himself under Ace’s free arm, hooking himself around the appendage while falling in step when the light changes. Ace lifts Luffy, dangling him along like a monkey. “ ’s a big white house standing all by itself. Moby Manner.” 

“Moby?” Luffy asks, big brown eyes looking up. “Moby Manner is where Whitebeard lives.” 

Sabo and Ace share the same missed heartbeat. “Do you know him, Lu?” asks the blonde. 

Luffy giggles his ‘shi-shi-shi’, “Nope. Dad used to tell me about him.” 

Luffy’s father. Mention of Luffy’s father, whose name Sabo has yet to learn, always preluded something ominous. “What did your dad tell you?” Ace asks.

Luffy swung down off Ace’s arm, hurrying along the paved sidewalk. His feet carry him up C Block, approaching B. Here there was less of a crowd. Buildings decorated with large and grand seals all made of metal that glittered under the sun. Beautiful impressions of weapons, or boxes, food, and books. Signifying what could be found for sale within. It was at the end of all this that a large green field opened out in front of them behind bars made of thick black iron. A three story home stood some ways back, white under the daylight, and half hidden behind great growing oaks. “Said if things ever got really bad…” Luffy brings his hands up, grasping white fists of cold metal. “Really bad, Old Man Whitebeard would be there.” 

Luffy gazes at the house. At the ornate front door with wide white columns on either side, supporting a pediment carved in the likeness of a whale. The house itself was enormous. Ten windows on either side of the door for every level. Several out-buildings, not to mention cars; all encompassed within a green space splattered here in there with trees or man-made ponds. 

“Is that an alligator?!” Luffy’s pointing excitedly down through the bars. 

“Yep.” Ace gets his face right up close to a gap, making kissing noises at the nearest hissing reptile they had woken up from his midmorning nap. 

Sabo peered forward, counting clearly the number of jagged teeth resided in the gaping maw of a yawning female. “Why are there Alligators?” 

“They’ve gotten so big~” Ace croons like they are fluffy little kittens. 

“Ace?” 

Sabo is raking fingers through his hair when his lover’s name is called out by another man. Ace recognizes him, standing just outside a little bistro across the street. He’s head to toe in turquois bicycling gear, the white striped spandex hugging tightly. Defining every ridge of toned muscle. The first memory Ace has of Marco will forever be imprinted on his mind. Strong arms reaching for him out of the darkness. “Marco.”


	5. Unsaid

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I do not own One Piece or any of its related materials.

“POPS!” Marco’s thrown open the oak front doors, banging them off the walls with a hallow sound that echoed. Arm around Ace’s neck, shouting. “Thatch! Izou! Haruta! Oi, MINA! ACE IS COME HOME!” 

Both Sabo and Luffy followed Ace as Marco drug him down a paved, and alligator-free, path to Moby Manor. They’re standing in the cradle of the massive front doorway, eyes thrown wide. The entire place was enormous, tall vaulted ceilings supported by thick oak beams, coned arches, stretches of staircases that led away in every direction. And from every direction, poured people. All smiling. All calling – for Ace. 

“What? Wait, Marco, I’m not back-!” Sabo leans up against the white marbled doorframe, one hand over his face, the other around his chest as he’s trying to hide the way his scar stretches when he laughs, Luffy is shameless, hanging bent at the waist belting laughter from the bottom of his stomach. Marco had Ace clamped right up against his side. Ace’s cheek plastered against a built chest in blue spandex.

“Son?” Silence followed in the wake of that spoken word. As thick as the will of a beast. An absolucence of presence of power. Luffy’s laughter died in his throat, skin pricked, thrumming for the existence that had just then come forward into his world. Old Man Whitebeard. The man appeared too large for the room, far taller than any other standing next to him, and he had to kneel down to place both arms around Ace’s shoulders. 

Ace was crying, laughing, both at the same time. “Pops.” 

“You’re home?” Izou’s make-up is only half finished, and so he’s not got lipstick on. Whitebeard draws away, turning his back to Ace. The old man returns to his chair on the far side of the room. A great grand room with three wide pillars supporting the upper levels. His chair, a throne of impressive mass and decoration; made of a wood so white that its veins ran like silver threads under his hands. Ace’s eyes were on the floor as the Izou’s question floated on the air. 

“I’m not *back, back.” Luffy’s eyes follow his brother’s shoulder. The left side leading as the freckled man’s eyes come up. The heat of a slumbering fire bubbles at the older’s back, heated by every eye upon him. 

Sabo steps from the doorway, placing a hand to the small of Ace’s curling back. Fingers pressing lightly into small knots of distressed muscle. Practiced fingertips, drawing slow delicate circles until he straightens, standing taller than before. “Breathe, Ace.” When Sabo speaks, it is only for Ace. The blonde man’s eyes searching all the alien faces around him. All the people of Ace’s life, and now his.

Sabo blue eyes were clear and calm, without shift of tremor. Ace looked into them, deciding they were the same as a rolling blue sky over wheat fields in summer, and he smiles. “I’m not back.” He says slowly, the volume of his voice having mercifully returned to him. “Just visiting.”

The old throne creaked, wooden bones settling under the bulk of the tall man who sat tall with a hand on either support. “I see.” There’s a smile under that man’s arched white mustache. Both eyes crinkled, the color of rich coal. “Then come, Ace. Come sit beside me for a moment before you go.” 

~~~~~~~~~~***~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~~~~~**~~~~~~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~~~~**~~~~~~

Luffy had found himself beside the door quite alone. There were people all over the place, but he’d never seen any of them before. It made them faceless to him. The only anchors were Ace and Sabo, who were slowly disappearing behind a gathering throng. 

There’s a surprisingly sober turn to the air around the Moby Manor. Whitebeard’s sons and gathering in the grand room. Before their father’s eyes, hugs were shared. Tears. Ace’s cheeks swam, and his left hand clung to Sabo’s solidity. Luffy skirted around the others, keeping to the edges of the room until he came to the right-hand side of Whitebeard. Luffy stood there, watching the great big man lift a grizzled arm, a bottle of sake slowly being emptied. He’s a wrinkled man, and he’s age-bald under the black bandana tied up ‘round his head. “I’m Luffy!” chirped the boy, hopping up to balance atop one of the throne’s arm supports. 

The bouncy young man, hardly any bigger than Whitebeard’s left arm, settles himself cross-legged next to the Old Man’s elbow. The Master of the Moby tilted his head. It only took him a moment to place Luffy. “How’s your father?” he asks, eyes wandering off towards his own. Thatch is ruffling Ace’s hair, and there’s a short girl got one arm thrown around Sabo’s shoulders. Sabo’s hat all tilted back as she’s whispering in his ear. Giggling. 

“Donno yet.” Luffy says, all white teeth and huge smile that doesn’t seem to go away, even after it should. The older man’s knowing look doesn’t break that grin. Its very existence carving truth that the raven haired younger really doesn’t know, and not one damn thing is going to make him know, even if he did – which he doesn’t. So there! 

Ace and Sabo are presently, however slowly, being directed towards their Pop’s seat. Several squishy chairs were all around, some hammocks, couches. Video game consoles and old 24’’ tube TV’s provided date to the Manor, though Luffy caught clear sight of that virtual reality simulator marked MARINE. 

When Ace catches site of his little brother up on his Pop’s arm support he sighs. “Luffy, come down from there.” He’s got his hands on Luffy’s small hips, lifting him down to stand on his own. Sabo fluffs Luffy’s hair, the boy shi-shi-shi-ing as he can’t seem to hold himself still. 

“We can’t stay long, Pops.” Ace admits, and he’s still got tears on his face, damn it. “I just wanted to…” The freckled man falters here. Slate-gray eyes steady, and with purpose. It’s only his mouth that seems to be filled with sawdust. He tries again, licking his lips. He is surprised when what he has so say carries so clearly on the air all around him. “I wanted you to meet my fiancé.” 

Luffy crossed his arms over his chest, smiling big as his two brothers hugged beside him. Only Whitebeard sees the slightest of tremors. On the left side of the young man’s face where he’s got a scar from a knife wound. Whitebeard heard about that knife wound from an old drinking acquaintance, a young red-head who couldn’t claim a city to live in if he tried. It had become a favorite tail of the one-armed man, to spin a tale of self-inflicted injury over pride. 

~~~~~~**~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~~~~~~~***~~~~~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~

It hadn’t been a joke, however, when Ace said they couldn’t stay. It was a short hour of catching up, a few beers, when it came time to leave. 

“Wait! We’re going to having a toast.” Marco announced, coming forward with a case of bottles. Efficiency in drinking is essential for anyone who calls Moby Manor home, and in a tinkling there were glasses in every hand, filled to the rim with a crystal clear sake that smelled of nut and jasmine. Haruta nudged Ace in the hips as she stood next to him. The Old Man receiving his glass last of all. 

“Ace has been gone a long while.” Whitebeard says, and all are silent to hear his words. “We are, all of us, a family. Even if we are far away.” Sabo feels the eyes of the Old Man on him. They are searching him, maybe, to see that he is fit. But he already can understand from him. He is past any test that could be asked. “Come home again sometime. All three of you.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading!!


	6. Farewell to Paradise

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I do not own One Piece or any of its related materials.

Ace is helping Luffy stuff plastic shopping bags and stacks of sleek and colorful boxes into the back of the borrowed midnight-blue Shusui. Sabo’s off returning their carts. It had been fun. Running up and down isles, and racing escalators. Between Sabo and Ace, Luffy had been taken inside nearly every outlet in Shabondy Mall. From closed-toe boots with steel guards, long sleeve shirts, braces, plasters, and gloves, Luffy’s never owned so much in his life. 

“Why didn’t you and Sabo get anything?” Luffy asks after he and Ace have heaved the hatch closed. 

The older stretches his back, arms up over his head. “We came to get things for you.” The grin that spreads over Ace’s face crinkles his eyes over his freckles. “Coming out to the farm with flip flops and an old open vest. Did you think they’d be any good to be trapping and trenching in?” 

Luffy looks away. One hand absently wrapping around his opposite arm. He’s got scratches and scabs there, under his fingers. As well as a few half-stuck-on plasters. “Didn’t know where I was going, really.” The low utter of the younger’s voice shrivels Ace’s blood. 

“Portgus D Ace!” 

Luffy’s aware of Ace’s warm touch on his shoulder. The older brother stepping between him and whoever it was that spoke out of the dark. “That’s me!” Ace’s voice answers in a clear ring. 

The caller is half in shadow, the mall car park stacked up with countless undulating concrete blocks. Decorated panels of endless advertisement glitter, but in some places there was darkness. Staircases and structure supports, they left long blank holes without any light. Darkness. 

“Who’s the squirt?” asks a different voice from the first, elevated maybe in tone, but only by its silkiness.

Ace can’t hear Sabo’s boots on the floor of the garage, and he can’t see him either. “Who’s asking?” he calls. 

They laugh at Ace, sharply. More than one or two. It sounded like two dozen within the confines of that echo off every solid surface. 

“Ace-.” Luffy’s gasping behind Ace’s back, a hand fisted in the older’s belt. Sabo’s come up between the vehicles and put a hand over Luffy’s quivering lips. 

“Let’s go.” The blonde hugs Luffy close to him, keeping his own voice as quiet as he can. Ace slips into the driver’s seat while Sabo helps Luffy in back and gets in beside him.

“Just go.” Sabo says, and it’s not shameful he’s got an edge to his voice. 

Luffy curls into Sabo, unbuckled in the backseat. Pulling his legs up to his chest while still managing to get his arms around the older’s waist. Ace drives down several ramps and around bends. They had been on the sixth floor the parking garage, so there were a lot of them. Dark places behind each one. And every one looked like it could hide a hundred thugs.

But, for whatever reason, they were allowed to pass unmolested through the parking structure. Ace paid the ticket for their stay, the boon lifted, and in a glitter of bale-blue the Shusui glided onto black paved streets. The open fields of Paradise. 

“Who was that?” Sabo asked Ace, once they were some distance from the garage entrance and beginning to merge with traffic. Luffy had his head in the curl of Sabo’s arm. The younger relaxing down. 

Ace checked his mirrors three whole times before changing lanes. Following a well beaten track with heavy ruts onto Reverse Bridge. Exit BF 30 took a person as far as the town of Goa. Dadan’s farm was farther east of that. On the Fringe. “I don’t know.” 

“They knew you.” Said Sabo, working a hand up and down Luffy’s back. Luffy hadn’t uttered a word since they left the garage. Just clung to Sabo, breathing. 

“I don’t know him, Sabo!” Ace jerked the wheel into Reverse Traffic, putting his foot fully down, hard metal against the ball of his foot to let out Shusui’s teeth. Peaking a hundred-twenty, Ace lets out a breath, like he’s been holding it. “Shit.” Ace spat, his head lolling to one side. 

Luffy is aware of Sabo’s strong arms pushing him to the side. Pressing his shoulders into the bench seat. Sabo’s stretched forward between the seats just as the vehicle begins to drift. “Ace? ACE!” 

Taking hold of the steering wheel, Sabo maneuvers them back onto a straight line. “See if you can get up and over this seat, Lu.”

“S-sure!” Luffy squirms between arm rests, seat cushions and Sabo easily, sitting himself in the front passenger seat. 

Sabo’s sweating, the speedometer still reading over a hundred miles per hour. “Can you get his foot of the gas?” 

Luffy bends to reach Ace’s booted feet, getting it up off the accelerator. The Shusui steadily decelerating. With Luffy’s help, Sabo gets Ace out of the driving seat and him in it without having to pull over. Stopping on Reverse Bridge is a death sentence. 

“Is Ace okay?” Luffy’s sitting in the back seat with Ace’s head in his lap. Poking at the older’s freckled nose. 

Sabo thinks back to all the times he’s known Ace to pass out. Once he nearly died drowning in hamburger and beans because he fell asleep over the stew pot. A couple times he thought Ace might have been faking it. Who falls to sleep in an elevator? In line at the grocery store? … He can’t help himself but chuckle to himself, despite the fact that they could have been killed. “He’s alright, Lu. We’ll wake him up at the rest area up near Cocoyashi. 

“Co-co-yashi?” Luffy repeats, folding his arms behind his head. There isn’t much outside, except the outside. Tree and grass, bushes. All green and gold. The sky is blue as usual, wide open up above them. He’s watching the clouds through the Shusui’s sunroof. 

“Little town built around a big orchard.” Sabo says. He checks the mirror and turns the wheel. The Shusui’s solid steering system and low cage design giving sleek inline tires teeth on the pavement, like it were mated. “Oh, I want to own one of these someday!” Sabo pines, a hand up, groping the smooth polished dash. 

The two of them laugh long and loud, picking new music for the return drive, and Luffy climbs into the front seat to spy out road names on signs he’s never seen before. “Oi, Sabo?” Luffy settles back in his seat, a squint in his nose. 

“What is it, Lu?” 

Evasion won out Luffy’s attention briefly. He’s not nosy by nature. It just sort of happens. “What’s a fiancé?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading!


	7. Secret's Out!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I do not own One Piece or any of its related materials. All belongs to Oda!

A few flies *split wetly against the windshield. So loud they might as well be rifle shots. Luffy’s in the front passenger bucket-seat with his legs crossed behind wraps of black seatbelt. Sabo clears his throat… coughs a few times… un-does his top button. Making a meal of checking all his mirrors and speed; but those big puppy-brown eyes and tooth-glint smile don’t budge. 

“Well, ah…” Sabo’s watching the world creep by as if he were only idling the engine, even passing vehicle after vehicle. Was that a cop? Where? Back there? I donno, there’s no cop there now… “Y-you see, when two people… sometimes they… I mean…” Sabo’s tongue is a log of fig, both eyes squinting ahead as he’s searching desperately in an empty brain for two consecutive words he might string together and use. “We’re going to be married.” Startlingly clear. Sabo wraps his lips around the words for the first time. “We’re going to be married.” He says it again, softer than before. Accepting their meaning, and allowing it sink full into him. 

Luffy’s quiet a while. Sabo moving two lanes over, making way for a line of heavily loaded trucks to scream passed. It’s not far after that he’s easing onto an exit ramp. A screen of butter-green trees rearing up on one side before their path plunges underneath the shadow of their sweeping canopy. The sun only shines again when they’ve come to a wide area, full of grass with a ring of colorful wagons selling and trading. There were other vehicles and families. All routs in and out of Paradise are busy places, and Cocoyashi’s the last safe place to stop for forty miles.

As soon as Sabo’s pulled the Shusui between two painted lines, Luffy’s thrown open the door and running about. Screaming things like “Yoohoo!” and “Meat!” as he goes. Sabo’s eyes drift along the immediate tree-line. He sees crowds of people in the mobile marketplace, traffic flitting by on a sliver of highway he can just make out through the trees. Deep breaths bring him the smell of mikan skins, sticky as fresh honey. The hum of thousands of bees rags the air, making it heavy and warm. 

“Ace.” Sabo goes around to the back passenger door. Leaning over the sleeping man with beautiful black hair. Ace’s freckles being complimented by a fresh golden tan that’s gathered on his cheeks. Wind burn red on the lobes of his ears. “Ace.” Softer this time, Sabo touches his lips the smooth heat of Ace’s cheek. He kisses Ace, quietly, trailing the tip of his nose gently along the other’s jawbone. Breathing him in, both Sabo’s hands supporting his being there above the other. 

Quick flutters of dark lashes gives him confidence Ace was waking up, and he leans back to sit beside the other splayed out on the leather backseat. He can see Luffy, opposite the paved area where they’d parked. A woman is standing next to his little brother, tall, with long red hair like the burning of a summer sunset. She lays a sack of mikans into Luffy’s arms, and then Sabo’s sure the woman gets up close, close enough to be a little… too close. 

“Nnh..” Ace pushes himself up next to Sabo, the blonde tearing his eyes away from the redheaded hussy in favor of his own interest. “What happened? Is this-. We’re in Cocoyashi?” 

“You took a little nap.” Sabo says, careful in his tone. 

“Yea?” Only a shadow of laughter gutters in Ace’s throat. Sabo lifts sea-blue eyes to find Ace face down in his own knees. Both hands nesting all ten fingers in his hair at the back of his head. The blonde man wraps his near arm around Ace’s back and shoulders. Hugging him into him, to allow the other a small moment of safety, before they are to begin again. 

~~~~~~~~~~~^~^^^~~~~~~~~~^~~~^^~~~~~~~~~~^~~~~~~~^~^^^^~~~~~~~~~~

Eventually Luffy returns to the car. Ace is only just sat back in his seat when his little brother’s head pops into view around Sabo’s shoulder and he’s climbing over the top of both of them to sit in the middle. “Ace is awake!” he announces needlessly, settling back as Sabo wraps his arms around him. 

“Who gave you these?” asks the blonde. They were the top quality of Cocoyashi, grown by the Manor’s Daughters. Said so on the label. 

Luffy wriggles in Sabo’s arms, biting down on his lips. 

“Luffy?” 

The boy of nineteen, still wearing his cut off shorts and tatty old red vest. He’s got one of Ace’s old white t-shirts on underneath, and so you can see every rip and tear contrasting between the two fabrics. An almost unheard whisper comes from him. Lips worried red, hardly moving. “…nakama.” 

Ace witnesses a manner of image that ricochets behind Luffy’s brown eyes. The younger staring at the glinting silver gear clutch between the two front seats. For a moment it absorbs the older, making every second stretch on and on much longer than it should. Great amounts of time, time to consider that the ‘here and now’ is safe. For both him and Sabo, and between them – under their protection, Luffy was safest. It’s not sheltering him. It is only what is expected.

Sabo holds Luffy’s small frame against himself, chin on the younger’s shoulder, rubbing slow circles there with his thumbs. “Dadan makes a good orange-glazed pig.” He says quietly into Luffy’s ear. Ace has reached forward, lifting Luffy’s chin. 

Steely grey eyes like a storm in winter let down only small droplets in the sea of Luffy’s gaze, which would not consent him to looking back. There was sweat on his forehead, and his jaw locked up tight. Behind Ace two women are laughing. One with long fire-red hair. Luffy’s attention is taken then, by the women in a long sun dress, arm in arm with a second girl. This one dressed less lavishly, her upper torso adorned with blue inked tattoos. Sabo draws Ace’s attention, and the other turns. When he sees the girls, he whistles long. “Good going, Lu.” He’s grinning now, diving into tickle the younger. Luffy’s wriggling with fits of giggles with Sabo pinning his arms. “So what’s her name?” Ace’s fingertips poke into the younger’s ribs, tickling carefully not to bruise the boy. There’s no meat on him, none at all. 

“Wahaaahaa!” Luffy squirms and writhes, his sandals getting caught up in the head rest and ripping the toe strap, which Ace had expected to go long before then. 

“Come on, Lu~” Sabo’s dexterous fingers take his younger brother’s pulse from where he’s got hold of his wrists. He’s sure it’s too high… 

“No way!” Luffy manages to gasp between fits of laughter. Ace frowns, hands disappearing up under the white t-shirt to get at Luffy’s bare sides. “Wahahah haha!” 

“Luffy! You gatta quiet down, you’re disturbing all of Bellmere’s customers!” 

Ace desists as the abrasive, and quite effective voice of a young woman cracked like a whip right under his left ear. Sabo couldn’t help his lips curling up into grinning like that. It was just way too funny, but he did release the half nelson he’d effectively had his little brother trapped in. 

“Very sorry.” Ace says, stepping smartly from the car and bowing his head. He offers his hand to the woman, and she takes it. Ace is surprised to find her fingers rough with scratches and cuts. A slick burn in the very center of her palm. A bad burn, healed long ago. 

The smile lighting up the redhead’s face extended to her eyes, even as she crossed her arms over an ample chest. “You’re looking after him?” she asks. Luffy and Sabo are getting out of the car on the other side. 

“Uh, yea.” Ace’s hand goes to the back of his neck. Rubbing under a string of red beads he’d begun to wear again. 

It happens in less than a second. Sabo and Luffy turn around the tail lights of the Shusui, the woman takes Ace’s shoulders. And all the blonde can see is red hair brushing past the curve of Ace’s back and shoulder, her lips still in pucker, retreating from where they had kissed him. Sabo’s heart jumped back and slid into his throat. 

“And you!” The woman’s moved neatly, spinning Ace slightly as she’s gone to taking the second man by the collar. Sabo’s shirt coming slightly untucked. “You’re looking after him?” she asks. 

“Nami.” Luffy’s got a hand on his nakama’s back. Gradually gathering her. There are tears in the woman’s eyes, and her shoulders keep hiking. 

Sabo’s found he can’t speak, and rather Luffy says something to her that the older can’t hear. When another girl comes, this one with the tattoos, Sabo is conscious of the quiet way Luffy says his farewells. 

Getting back into the car, Luffy settles onto his knees, both arms supporting his chin in the back window. He’s watching Nami and her sister. Nojiko waving as they make the turn away from Cocoyashi and back on to the highway. 

Ace accelerates to merge with traffic, joining the second lane from the left before setting an automatic speed. “She special, that girl?” Ace asks. 

Luffy doesn’t answer. He doesn’t have to. 

For the rest of the journey home, Ace let Luffy have his secrets. He’s got the right to have secrets, same as him and everyone. He laces his fingers with Sabo’s above the gear shift, resting the other man’s palm in his own. The road opened wide with less traffic than usual. Under fluffs of white cloud in a sky blue like dreams. 

They didn’t even play the radio. They just traveled in the quiet all the way back to the farm. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~***~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~~~~~~**~~~~~~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~~~~

It was early. Dark, and damp. Luffy’s pulling a thick wool sweater over his head, his hands reaching in every direction through sleeves just a little too long for him. Sabo half chuckles, half yawns as he’s gathered the fabric of his trousers to tuck into rubber boots. Ace busy fighting with his shoelaces, trying out a little trick Dogra taught him to save his ankles getting loose. 

“So tell me, again. How do you know Zoro?” Ace’s line of questioning about the green haired blacksmith/devil racer had regained any of its lost momentum after the three brothers’ return to the farm the night before. Zoro, after taking his keys back from Ace, gathering Luffy up in his arms to share a kiss that was cheered and hollered for by all. All except Dadan, who came out of the kitchen waving a spoon shouting at everyone to get back to their chores. 

Sabo can see Luffy smiling into his sweater by the reflection of his mirror. There’s a little blush to his cheeks, and Sabo’s sure he heard him gasping during the night. You know, in that special way you do when you’ve got your lover on your mind. Droplets of water collect coolly at the ends of Sabo’s blonde curls. His towel is still around his shoulders as he’s looking around the room for a shirt.

“Shi-shi-shi! It’s a secret!”

Ace almost rips his coat tearing his arm into the sleeve. 

“You should stop asking him.” Sabo trails a hand up over the other’s corded lower back. Ace’s skin warming to searing in the wake of the other’s touch. It’s not long after that that the freckled man’s shoulders slouch, and he’s sitting docile on the bed next to the blonde. 

Luffy’s busy doing up the buckles on his boots. Big, thick leather ones, like neat armor! When he sees his brothers sitting quiet, leaning into each other. He grins. “When are you gonna get married?” Luffy asks, giggling, and loud as shit. 

Sabo’s fingers stop moving up and down Ace’s back, which had ram-locked. The silence after Luffy’s loud jovious voice beat a tempo alike to a drum between their heartbeats. The other weighing with more substance. Before several doors slammed, and someone inside the house shouts an ambiguous, “I knew it!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading <3 I have had horrible writer's block, but it seems to be lifting. Good vibes!


	8. Steam and Betting

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I do not own One Piece or any of its related materials.

Sabo leans into Ace, the two of them occupying a rather full coat closet on the ground floor of the farm house. The blonde’s hands quietly unbuttoning the other’s collared shirt. There’s a lot of noise in the hallway. People rushing about. Dadan’s household only really kept on three full-time, and that was Dadan herself, and her two nephews, Magra ad Dogra. The rest were on hire. The Dadan Family. Sabo remembered how he’d come to the farm. His father had always told him. Every time he got his marks back at the end of the year. Always he remembered his father’s cobbled features, his eyes bulging with indignant gluttony. Threats and promises, to sell him off to some Bandits on the Fringe.

“Sabo, - ah, nnh – wait –”

“Why?” Sabo whispers into the shell of the other’s ear. His breath is hot and muggy under everyone’s coats pressing them together. Ace’s arms are around the other, clinging to him desperately. When the freckled man makes no answer. No suggestion or response, the other grins into the curve of his neck. Ace smells like cut wood and grass. Though some of that might have been him. He can smell the engine grease still on his hands that he was unable to scrub away. “Relax for me, Ace.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~~~~~~~**~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Dadan’s hair frizzes a little for the steam rising off several stewpots and an open stove. She didn’t much mind, waggling a white rolled cigarette from one side of her mouth to the other. A bit of ash falls into the gravy, and she adds another row of bacon in the space where others have shrunk down. There were three dozen in her house at the moment, she’d guess. All of them with the Devil’s own blood in them! There’s that pair from East Town, Yosaku and Johnny. They come every year, regular. Paulie, and couple land strippers from Seven’s Water. Ace and Sabo both came back this year on agreement. About a dozen up from Free Alabasta Port. On top of that the rags that didn’t even look like they had homes before they landed on her step. Magra and Dogra were of course in the house, and preferred to work with a select number that would be in and out with warning. Zoro being one of them. Zoro. He'd been missing for the last three seasons, after cutting his previous contract short. 

The woman’s thick arm shook spices onto a rising crust, biting down on her cigarette and taking a calming drag. Her cherry shone blinding red for several heartbeats before going dim. Her exhale up into the vent hood long and satisfying. She had a lot riding on the farm this year. Always did. And to add to all that she’s contracted with that Garp to house a felon from the Red Line Marine Crops.

“Morning, Dadan.” Magra was running his fingers through his mustache, yawning as he’s crossing the kitchen to look out the window. It’s still dark outside, though the sun is coming. Everything glows in the odd space between yesterday and today.

“Morning.” The woman answers, automatic and clear.

“We’ll need a group up on the ridge tomorrow,” Mutters the man with the red Mohawk, sitting down in a chair and pouring himself a cup of coffee. There are a few tables to choose from, but the first table in front of Dadan’s counter, he and Dogra would take every morning.

“What about those little shits from East Town?” Says the woman, transferring fried eggs and skins onto plates and setting them out. “Yosaku and Johnny.”

Magra scoffs over his coffee. “Giving those two access to firearms? Spare us.”

“I KNEW IT!!”

It was a shriek that would’ve woken the dead twice over on a clear day. Magra nearly (nearly) spilling scalding coffee down his shirt. Dadan’s slammed down the stew pots and spun towards the stairs. The shout occurring form the second floor. It wasn’t long before several faces began to appear, among them was Dogra, his turban spun smartly round his head, striding forwards with the smuggest smirk of a Bandit born out on the Fringe should ever have.

The smaller man makes a meal of stretching his short legs and getting comfy in his chair before he’s held his hand out to Magra. “Pay up.”

“For what?”

“Yea-HA! Three thousand beli!” A blonde from the desert port cheers from a side table as he’s closing a fist around his prize.

Magra’s face scrunches up. Which bet was it? Damn… he shouldn’t bet so much…. Wait. “No?” he’s asking, lips twitching up into a grin.

Dogra’s smiling, palm of his hand still held out.

“No? ah ahaaahaa!” Magra’s chortling even as he’s getting his wallet out. Similar was occurring around the room. Some were new to the farm, but plenty had been there before. Plenty that had been there to see for themselves; that day Sabo asked Ace to marry him.

“Oh great sea demons…” Dadan’s pained muttering disappears as she crosses into a pantry to get more syrup and beans.

~~~~~~~~~~~~**~**~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~**~~~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Luffy sweated under two layers of thick wool. The only thing protecting his skin from thorns thick enough to most certainly pass right through him. His gloved hands grapple with the head of a giant serpent, a great sweep of blackberry vine. The spines, long and sharp, stuck through in places, smarting as they pricked his skin. He’s confused a moment, the sensation of pain moving slowly up through his arm. Watching the blood soak into his gloves. The fabric reddening.

“Luffy.” Sabo’s at his shoulder with a pair of hedge cutters. He’s taken the vine off at ground level as Ace walks up with a shovel to dig out the root. While Ace is working Sabo kneels down to have a look at Luffy’s hands. He removes the younger’s gloves and lays them aside. Half a dozen deep punctures bleed freely under Sabo’s nose. “You should be more careful with yourself, Lu.” Reprimands the older, though admittedly soft. He can’t really get angry with Luffy for getting hurt, can he? Sabo takes a bottle of antiseptic from a hip sack he carried. Washed and wrapped up Luffy’s bloodied hands before he slides on a spare pair of gloves he had in yet another pocket. They’re a little too big for Luffy, but Sabo’s already scooped up the bloodstained pair and turning to follow Ace.

They’d been pitched with clearing brush from the fence line. Some fool party being held there during the summer, and since they weren’t planning on using the spare acers for crop, it was a good investment. Luffy hadn’t really gotten much of that, however, all he heard was; fight the plants!

“YeeaahhHH~”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading!!


	9. Commitment

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I do not own One Piece, or any of its related materials.

*****The proposal…*****

They were all standing in the crowded airport. Heartbeats ticking by with pulsations of time dying off with each breath. Sabo has to say something. Something… Anything! He and Ace weren’t going to see each other again for two years! 

“O- oi! Ace!” He calls into the tremendous sound that was Lapan Airport. A short lift station that took a person from the Fringes to more civilized places. It’s the first time either he or Ace have been on a plane. Sabo doesn’t know what he wants to say. Or what he should say. Having difficulty discerning between the two when what came spilling from the blonde man’s lips surprises them all. “Marry me?!” 

Ace has one arm slung around his duffle, another twirled up in the strap of an old orange backpack. They’re not that far apart, maybe twelve meters? They’re shouting because it’s the airport at rush hour. “Huh?!” Ace asks, trying to turn up the brim of his hat with his shoulder. Sure he’s misheard. 

“Marry me!?”

Eyes like the stormy great grey edges of massive thunderheads could only blink back at Sabo. Ace has shared a room with the blonde boy for nye on a decade. For longer than he’d shared a room with Marco. It was a different place for each of them, Dadan’s farm. For Ace it was a prison. For Sabo… Sabo had been bought at the Slave Rows. Eighty-thousand beli changed hands that day, Dadan had told him. Both boys had almost arrived in the farmhouse right on top of one another at the age of seven. Sabo first, and then Ace ‘moving’ into the room a few months later. 

They’re all standing there in the middle of the busy airport junction when suddenly everything is brought to a viking stop with no room for maneuver. Ace falls in line with others who begin their way onto boarding Rosey Life Airlines. Sabo jostled into step with his own thick ticket, going in the opposite direction. Dadan, Magra, and Dogra had come to see them off. The three standing on the other side of white ropes next to others who were mothers and fathers, or other-such-relatives seeing their precious children off to the long education. 

“Can you see? What did Ace say??” Magra’s hair bounces a bit for his bobbing up and down behind the ropes. 

“Bet you fifty-thousand beli, Ace’ll say yes.” Dogra’s leering up at the taller man. 

“Goldfish snot! Ace ‘n Sabo? They’re… well… they’re like brothers!” 

“They do cuddle close~” 

“Be quiet, the both of you.” Curly Dadan’s been watching both boys all afternoon, all through the car ride to the Airport. She knew something was going on. Those two have never before been silent that long. But marriage? She lets out a cheek-full of yellow smoke, watching it lucridly weave away from her up into filtration ducts near the roof. She wondered if that old toad Garp knew about this. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*~***~~~~~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~~~

*****Present*****

Sabo’s woken up in a sweat, sheets sticking to him. He’s kicked all his other blankets to the floor. The mattress squeaking. To be more precise, the wires that used to confirm a mattress-like-object were squealing. Like strangling piglets! 

“Is Sabo alright?” 

Is that Luffy? Ace? Where was he again?

“Get back, you two!” A shadow passes over Sabo’s eyes. Nothing but a blur. He’s too disorientated to open them properly, but it hardly mattered. A pair of already-gloved hands were reaching to do that work for him, flashing a light in and out to check for dilation

“Ne? Ne! Is Sabo alright?!” 

A strong touch bite the back of Sabo’s shoulder, gently guiding him to sit up. “Sabo, you back? Come on, lad.” Magra’s guttural mumble is half so much buzzing in his ears. The big man’s gotten himself between Sabo’s single bed and the window, getting an arm under the other to hoist him up.

“Ne?!” Luffy’s doesn’t whine. No really. He might beg, but only for food. But he doesn’t often whimper for pain, or for any other reason. It makes the fear in his rising expression drive as a knife would through Ace’s belly. Twisting hard with every moment he can’t stop his little brother’s eyes filling with tears to stream down puffy cheeks. 

“Take him out of here, Ace.” Dadan’s ordering as she pulls a guard from the side table, getting it between Sabo’s teeth even as the blonde’s neck spasms and throws his head back. “Now! And you can stay out yourself, for a change.” 

Dogra’s on the other side of the door, when Ace and Luffy are ceremoniously thrown from it. The little man’s got his turban off, exposing slick back hair all plastered to his round head. Without the enormous adornment on top his head, he looked rather wan. “Get going, there’ll be breakfast out when it’s over.” 

Luffy’s eyes are stretched wide, breathing like a bull in heat. “O-o-over? But, but, Sabo – ” Dogra’s around the edge of the door and closed it without a backward glance. Ace left holding Luffy by the wrist as the boy half pulled his way towards the handle. 

“He’ll be alright, Lu.” Ace says, gently. Pulling Luffy a little back. 

It was early morning still, the day after everything about his and Sabo’s engagement to spin through the farmhouse. Though not much changed. Not in the high season when everything is due for getting cut, cleared, burned, and planted. Dadan wouldn’t give an hour for Kings or Criminals – except Garp. So even as salvaciously delicious the topic of two strapping young men getting married out in the fringe is, they had been spared a true circus. 

“What’s wrong with him? Is Sabo okay? Oi, Ace?” 

Trying to get a hand over Luffy’s mouth while he’s wriggling around like a fire hose on full blast, Ace is hypersensitive to how much noise they’re making in the house an hour before everyone had to get up. “Luffy, shh! It’s alright, Sabo’s had seizures before. Calm down!” 

They made it down the stairs with only a few low grumblings of discontent from behind closed doors. Curses and threats from the half-awake. Ace isn’t worried. All is forgiven if they are to fall back to sleep and not be interrupted again. 

“What’s a sea jar? 

“Seizure.” Ace repeats, getting Luffy across the main of the dining room to sit down. The curtains are still drawn, and it’s dark. So early that coffee is just falling into the glass bell, and there are only a handful of lights on. The drips are noisy in the early quiet. “It’s like, like all your muscles react at once – to something that may or may not be there. Like running a hundred miles at once, and afterwards it takes a while to feel alright.” 

Luffy’s got his elbows on the table, brown eyes shadowed in the low light over the table. Glittering a little more wet than usual. Ace can’t look back into his little brother’s eyes, and takes the effort of getting up for a mug of coffee. Without concern for boundaries or boarders, Luffy’s chin follows his older brother across to the counter. Watching as the other collects a black mug with a laughing white mask on it, and sets in on the counter. 

That was when Ace turns for the sugar, seeing that he is being seen. It made him feel naked, somehow. Being watched so closely and quietly. Luffy’s got his hands on the table with nothing to do, wringing his feet in what looked like a nervous habit. “He will be alright, Lu.” 

Luffy nods, bringing his hands together to lace and lock his own fingers. He chews his lip, and looks away. Ace can hear the small sobs Luffy tries to hide. Can certainly tap his spoon just a little more loudly on the side of his cup to cover sniffing Luffy obviously didn’t to share.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading!!!


	10. The Man in the Picture

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I do not own One Piece or any of its related materials. All belongs to Oda!!

Dadan’s closing the door to Ace, Sabo, and Luffy’s room. Sabo’s seizure had been violent, but short. He’s going to rest a while. Wouldn’t be working that day. The woman’s curly hair bounces as she turns, pulling a metal cigarette case from her pocket and lighting one of the long white sticks. Without exchanging words, she and her nephews part ways. She goes downstairs to finish breakfast. 

Her eyes are taken to Ace and Luffy. Sitting across from each other at the furthest away table. She’s just gotten her apron retied when the front door rattles under four stout knocks. Ace is on his feet to answer, crossing his arms when he sees the man that it is. 

“What do you want?”

“Zip it, Freckles.” 

Luffy worms in his chair until he can see Ace in the doorway. His older brother a lot smaller than the guy standing just outside. He’s huge! Almost has to bend over to keep from clunking his head when he sweeps over the threshold. Two thick black cigars softly puffing out pillows of grey vapor. 

“What can we do for you, Detective Smoker?” Dadan calls, sliding a few fried eggs into a warming tray. 

“I want a word, Curly Dadan.” 

“Then have it.” 

Smoker’s icy eyes sweep the room. Ears pricked for the slight sounds of movement as the house proper were waking up for the day. “I’d rather we speak in private.” 

“Then you’ll sit and wait for my time.” Announces the woman, throwing out her chest under a speckled apron. “There’s work to be done ‘round here. If you want a word you’ll get it faster by helping out.” 

Ace chuckles, sitting back down. “Pull up a chair, Asshole. Looks like you’re working a day on the farm.” 

Smoker’s bulbed nose wrinkles as he pulls both cigars from his lips. A moment passes while the man seemed to consider his options. The smell of deviled ham and locks eggs and waffles and port-vine wine. The drive back to paradise would take him hours. He sits down at the table, and Ace is still cackling at him. “Who’s this?” He asks. 

“I’m Luffy!” Putting out a hand, Luffy’s face splits in two. White teeth flashing with the first weak rays of sunlight creeping in through dusty windows. 

“Luffy? Monkey D Luffy?” 

“Don’t answer that.” Ace puts his cup down on the table with a force to rattle forks and knives. 

Luffy quirks an eyebrow. “Why?” 

“Because he’s a prick.” 

“Fuck you, Portgus.” 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~***~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~**~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Luffy sweated under a white sun. Back bent. The field reaching out and away. Row after row of deep chunnels made by the plow some time before. He drags a mighty root from where it lay abandoned of once solid ground. He lifts it easily, chucking it to the side to make a path between each row. That was the job today, and it was simple enough. He didn’t mind even, that it was a little boring. At least he was outside.

At the end of the row Luffy stops. Unscrewing a long waterpouch and tips it back over thirsty lips. Water tasted differently at Dadan’s farm than it had at his father’s mansion. Different than Shanks’ house. Different everywhere, now that he came to think about it. Dadan’s farm had water like thick copper pudding… It’ll be time for lunch soon, Luffy reckons. He’s staring off into space with the taste of acidic water on his tongue. Today the sky is blue. Just like yesterday. Luffy misses clouds. They remind him of different things. He can ignore what he needs to. A blue sky is different. It leaves him bare. 

Hooves on the dirt bring Luffy to turn around. He’s just on the edge of Dadan’s property, where the fence meets naked land. The first thing he sees is Zoro’s green hair, then the stallion under him. Luffy goes to the fence, his knees meeting wood as he leans against it. Zoro doesn’t seem to have noticed him, too busy trying to stay on top of the bucking animal beneath him. Luffy shivers. Zoro isn’t wearing a shirt, so his rippling body is open and sweaty. Shiny under the sun. The blacksmith doesn’t use a saddle, instead grips the animal with his own strength to hang on. The horse lets out a scream, snorting forward rapidly in an attempt to thrust its rider up and over. But Zoro is not to be hurled by any beast into the dust. 

Luffy reaches for himself as Zoro’s grinning feral to break his animal. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~**~~~~~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~***~~~~~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~~~ 

Sabo is sitting up in bed with Luffy tangled up in both his legs and the blankets. Ace half in a chair, half on the bed beside the blonde. The door to their room is closed, the rest of the house outside in the hallway having periodic brawls over the shower and toilet. 

“What do you think old Smoker wants?” Sabo asks after Ace tells him the stoic officer-of-the-law has been made to lay beans for the afternoon. 

“I don’t care what he wants, he can go fuck himself.” 

Sabo lets out a long breath, one hand coming up for a gentle stroke up Ace’s cheek. There’s a day’s worth of black stubble there, and worry lines under his silvery eyes. Sabo smiles for him, and Ace lays his head down on the other’s shoulder. 

~~~~**~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~***~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“You wanted a word?” Curly Dadan puts both feet up on a footstool in the dining room. Everyone except Magra and Dogra having cleared out so that the Detective could have his word. 

Smoker sighed and nodded. He’d been abused all day working for her, but he needed information. “We received word that a fugitive went missing from special holding recently.” 

Dadan pulled in a long drag, letting it out at leisure. “That sort of thing happens.” She says. 

“You’re one over on your roster this year.” 

Green eyes narrow down, and the woman pulls the rest of her cigarette in one breath. 

“Monkey D Luffy, is the name of the fugitive.” 

“Is it?” 

Smoker bites down hard on the ends of his cigars. “I know you might think you’re protecting the boy –”

“What’s your proof I’m holding a fugitive. If you need papers, I’m sure they can be arranged.” 

“Bought, you mean.” 

The two leer. Imposing, towering individuals used to others bowing under their influence without effort. Magra and Dogra said nothing between them, knowing they were not being paid attention to, and so were playing cards on the table. 

Detective Smoker’s fist came down on the table hard. “Fine. But if you are hiding him, be warned. I won’t be the only one looking for him.” A blue gloved hand reaches into a folder to take out a poster of a man laughing, his eyes rolling madly even though the picture was perfectly still. 

Dadan takes the picture from Smoker, memorizing it instantly through years of practice before passing it along to her nephews. “We’ll keep an eye on things. Thank you.” 

Air thick as cotton only exacerbates the silence of those four individuals left in the dining room. A silence that ended with the detective leaving out the same door he’d come, letting the screen fall back onto its catch.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading!!!


	11. Anxious

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I do not own One Piece or any of its related materials.

Ace can’t for memory remember the last time his freckled cheeks burned so red, or when sweat broke out in little transparent pears all across his face. The normally noisy, ruckus dining room gone quiet enough to hear a pin drop. Great big grins beginning to curl up faces leaning every-so-slightly closer to hear the answer to Dadan’s question.

“Tomorrow!” Luffy sings, sitting right beside him. Egg and potato in danger of flying off the end of his fork as he swings his arm back.

Ace’s got slippery eels in his throat, and they’ll definitely come out if he tries to talk. So he doesn’t. Imploring a look of anguish to his lover. Only Sabo’s got his hand stuffed in this mouth, shaking with silent laughter. Ace shoves his knuckles into the blonde’s ribs, making the other sputter and reach for his hand.

“If we’re laying for two weeks.” Dogara muses. Chin in his hand, “Repairs to the roof’ll take some time, and after that’s the big contract….” Ticking off days on his hands, the little man kept mumbling away. All the many, and various, things that would go on at the farm this year. Ace becoming increasingly aware of the side conversations cropping out at every table about them, sometimes punctuated by snorts of wicked laughter.

Dadan’s lips curling sinisterly in smile as she asked again, reveling in Ace’s squirming under everyone’s attention. “So, out with it. When’s it gonna be? You’ve got your license to buy, and flowers. Your guests will need invitations, not to mention food, probably a lot of beer – ” Tremendous agreement swept the dining room. “Oh, and who will be the bride?”

Ace’s eyes cross as his head thumps down onto the polished tabletop. Luffy, poking at his brother’s freckled nose as he’s shi-shi-shi-ing quietly against the older’s shoulder.

Sabo’s pulled his knuckles from between his teeth. A soft smile for the hand that’s gone limp while being held in his. “When is the last shipment going out to Zou?” he asks, fingers petting unconsciously at Ace’s warm palm.

Dadan raises her eyebrows at Mogara. The big man pushing a few strands of red hair out of his eyes as he’s consulting a notebook on the table. “Week before the end of summer.” He says, folding over a crackling page. He looks poignantly at Dadan for a second, and Sabo waits for them to start talking. Except they never do. The broad shouldered woman turning green eyes around to face Sabo inquiringly, now that his answer had been provided.

Ace’s lightly breathes beside him, freckled cheek resting half on his napkin. “That’ll be fine. The last week of summer.” The room gave a lude ‘aw’ when Sabo bent over Ace, brushing lips against the tanned curve of his ear. “And you’ll be my bride.” Luffy hears him whisper to his lover.

 

~~~~~~~^~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^^~~~~~~^~~~~~~~~~~^^~^^^~~~~~~~~~~~

Ace swings back an axe, bringing the sharp edge down into the fleshy hulk of ash in front of him. The separated halves fall away on either side, and he’s reaching for the next piece. There’s no one up here with him, the wooded side of the farm where they cut and replant each year. He takes air into his lungs, fills them up full before exhaling slowly.

He was getting married.

Swallowing hard, Ace swings the axe again. Lift, cut, push – lift, cut, push. A steady rhythm as his mind reals and spins around itself. Getting quicker with each stroke through the air until he’s leaning on the axe handle, gasping. He half wished he didn’t have to get married, but when he thought of Sabo’s blue eyes outside at night. Of the way his lips press warmly to his. Of the way they plan on holding each other every night for the rest of their lives. He could not deny it was what he wanted. What he needed. And it seemed important to Sabo, all the ceremony, so of course it was a go. Ace could never tell the blonde no, never.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^~~~~~~~^^~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^~~~~~~~~

By six o’clock, almost everyone was back in the house. Supped and showered, enjoying a few scant evening hours for solitary activities. Ace shambles into the house, sitting down at the first table he comes too and putting his head in his sweaty arms.

He wants to just sit and exist for a second, just to think – however disjointedly – about what was quickly becoming his future. He doesn’t hear Sabo come down stairs and say hello to him, or feel Luffy when the stretchy teen slides onto the bench seat beside him.

“Is Ace sleeping?” He hears his little brother ask. Luffy’s nose so close to his cheek that he can feel heat radiating off his body. He smelled like water and cheap soap. Must have just gotten out of the bath.

“Looks like it.” Sabo’s headed voice sank into Ace as the blonde sidled up beside him. Sabo is warm and solid next to Ace, thighs pressing together.

Luffy wraps his arms around Ace’s opposite arm and hums. “I wanna sleep too.” He mumbles, rubbing his eyes with the back of one hand.

“Well, get going.” Sabo pokes his nose in the direction of the stairs. “We’ll be up in a minute, so just get into bed, Lu.”

The youngest brother gets up and goes. Waves of exhaustion finally taking their tax of his bountiful energy. But everyone must sleep. Sabo turns half lidded opal blue eyes to the black mop that was the back of Ace’s head. Face nestled in fluffy tufts. He was awake. Sabo knew. Because Ace snores when he’s really sleeping.

Emboldened, Sabo began an impromptu quest, sliding a hand to his lover’s hip and reaching beneath his t-shirt to press firm pads into the flesh along the other’s spine. Ace keens, bringing his head up out of his arms. He finds the other watching him, a smile stretching the scar over his cheek and left eye. Sabo continuing to rub the sore muscle Ace had attained from swinging around an axe like a machine all day. “You overdid it.” he reprimands, dipping fingertips into the warm space between skin and boxer elastic. He loves the way it makes Ace shiver beside him.

“Didn’t.” objected the freckled man, leaning closer to Sabo, allowing the blonde continue to kneed and touch.

“And you smell like a log truck.”

“Happens.”

“You need a shower.”

“I’ll take one tomorrow.”

Sabo smiles, big oval tooth-gap dark against the white of surrounding teeth. He wraps his arm around the other, nuzzling against his warm neck, lying soft kisses in a line. Ace tasted like hard work. Like sawdust and sweat. The blonde turns on the bench seat, sliding one knee between the other’s legs. Ace is hard and wanting, and Sabo’s friction slides up into him he makes a moan. Sound bubbled up and out from some desperate place inside him. “Come on,” the blonde purrs into Ace, meeting the other’s lips. “Let’s go take one now.”  

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry to have been gone so long - I'm back now, and hoping for regular updates :) Thank you for reading! Reviews are welcome!


	12. Knowing

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I do not own One Piece, or any of its related materials.

It’s the dead of night. Dadan’s house is full to capacity. She even has a couple groups hold-up in the barn. It had been an atrocious week, for everyone. Simple work, just a lot of it. Luffy yawns, blinking his eyes open to a blurry dark room. Blue outlines around dressers and bedposts almost traceless as he licks his lips for the taste of sleep. Except that he’s gotten hungry, and he simply cannot sleep while he’s hungry.

Bare feet are quiet on the smooth wood-pvergo floor as he’s wrapped his blanket around his waist, getting up out of his cot. Ace’s has one arm up over his head, blanket half on and half off himself. It’s hot in the room. Muggy. The window thrown wide with bugs trying to get in through the screen. The older grumbles in his sleep when his little brother makes for the door, but he’s not waking up. Luffy’s sure of it, when he slips out.

Lines of moonlight stretch exaggeratedly from a round window at the apex of the long hallway where all the bedrooms are. Everyone was pretty much three or more to a room. In fact, the dozen from Free Port came with the promise of only one room. Luffy lamented that it was way cooler than the one he shared with his brothers, because who wouldn’t want to sleep in a rubik’s cube bunk bed!

Luffy’ down the stairs in a hazy blur, rubbing sore knuckles into equally sore eyes as he makes for the white refrigerator behind the range and ovens. It was a white appliance, and shiny. Easy to see in the otherwise darkness. He pulls platters of cold cuts and pie from the fridge, remembering thankfully to remove all the plastic before swallowing whole slices. He licks his thumb for a bit of cherry filling, glancing to the countertop. There’s a poster there. A notification of assault and a short public service warning, followed by a bad booking photograph of a wide man with unsettlingly shadowy eyes. 

Luffy knows this man. His father had warned him about him.

“Luffy.”

Brown eyes come up in the dark. Dadan’s impressive figure over him like a specter. She’d taken a breath to begin shouting at her young tenant. It had been a routine of sorts for them, because Luffy got hungry in the middle of the night for no reason a lot. But she can’t find it in her to do it tonight, her anger turning to dust on her tongue.

Luffy sat on the stool, no longer shoveling fistfuls of pecan crumble into his mouth. One hand on the edge of the poster the detective had brought.

“Do you know this man, Luffy?” the woman asks, rounding the counter. She takes the empty trays from in front of the young man, leaving the rest of the leftovers at his elbow without a word.

“Y-yea. I do.”

“Friend of your father’s?”

Luffy shakes his head. “I don’t think he liked him very much.”

“What do you know about him?” Dandan asks, pouring chocolate syrup into some milk and stirring it. She’s leaning over the counter and placing it in front of Luffy’s spaced-out face, and when he smells the sweet chocolate he smiles at her, reaching for the straw.

“Since you found this,” She says, pulling the poster back across the counter and rolling it up. “You should be careful. I was told this man might come looking for you.”

Luffy swallows, nodding. “I know.” He says. It’s all he says.

After a while sitting quietly, Dadan snubs out the end of her cigarette and goes back to bed.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^^~~~~~~~~~~~~^~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^~~~~~~~~~

“No roses!” Ace’s cheeks are bright red under his freckles. Sabo shouting at Johnny with his mouth full of egg.

“What’s a Bridal-Themed-Anything without _roses_?” Scandalized, the East City native rubs at his goatee, erasing something on a clip board in his hands. The blonde puts his head in one palm, rubbing at his face.

“They don’t have to get it right.” Ace says, snatching back a bit of bacon Luffy’s not managed to get past his lips.

“If you _didn’t_ have a favorite flower, it wouldn’t matter so much.” Sabo’s attention returns to his cornbeef hash. Lifting a forkful to his mouth and letting the flavors hit his tongue. Waking him up. Dadan was an excellent cook after all.

“Who says I got a favorite flower?”

Two board blue eyes roll onto Ace, a tilt of his head as he swallows a mouthful of food. “Pink Hibiscus.”

Luffy’s chewing, a fork in both hands. He can feel the heat coming off his brother. Ace’s whole body blushing furiously to match the red beads strung around his neck. He’s still bushing after Sabo’s kissed his cheek, gathered his coat, and run off to get working on the tractor. They needed it for harvest, otherwise it was going to have to be done manually – and fuck no.

Ace watches Sabo go.

Luffy steals Ace’s orange juice.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~^~~~~~~~~~~~~^~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^^~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Zoro’s boots are caked with mud, bits of straw stuck in his shirt. He lets go the leg of a black mare, one of Mogra’s prize step-horses. She goes off into the field, feet kicking up sod and dirt, just as the sun’s lifting up bright arms over Dadan’s farm. The blacksmith had been staying in the barn with the rest of the barn-hands. He didn’t mind. There weren’t  too many bugs, and the weather was warm enough he almost didn’t need a blanket.

“Oya! Nee-chan!”

Turning his remaining eye, Zoro can see a few people coming up the lane. One waving his hand. He was massive. Zoro crosses both arms over his chest, leaning against the barn door. “What do you want?!” he calls as the large man came forward away from his companions. “This property belongs to the Dadan Family, just so you know. Lady of the house is a slave driver. Come too near and you’ll be put to work.”

The early light of day made the man’s features too sharp, from his pointed nose to beady black eyes. His teeth are half missing, knocked out in random places. And Zoro’s sure his forehead’s been dented from a blow with a bat.

“Ah, well. You see I’m looking for someone.”

“Aye, and who might that be?”

“Goes by the name of Luffy. Monkey D. Luffy.”

The slightest of tremors trails across the green haired man’s forehead. “Sorry, nobody by that name here.”

“Jahaha! How unfortunate.”

Zoro’s not aware of rancid breath in his face, or the hand fisting to crack the doorframe inches from his cheek until it was the truth. The man’s dark black curls hemmed with hot gold under the light of the sun. “Jahaha.” The man laughs. Pushing a paper into the blacksmith’s chest before walking away. Boffing laughter from both lungs, he rejoins his small party and they disappear into the distance.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading!!!


	13. Desperate

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I do not own One Piece or any of its related materials.

Darkness is swept away, a white sun bursting on the horizon behind dancing stalks and branches. Dadan’s farmhouse sharply outlined by the dawn. Luffy’s got heavy boots on today, they’re hunting in the woods that boarder the farm way away on the west side. He’s really excited because Ace promised he’d get to use a bow, and he’s never ever done that before!

“Luffy.”

The boy of nineteen hears the blacksmith. Hears faint tremor of hesitation as he walks forward with the dawn behind. Green hair yellowed by the early light. Zoro’s quiet, handing the younger a folded paper from his back jeans pocket. It’s accepted and unfolded. Luffy’s chocolate eyes steadily reading. He read the whole thing before looking back up to the world. By this time there were quite a few people about. A few shouts and crashes from inside the barn. Ace appears on the porch at that moment. Finding Luffy and Zoro sitting on the wooden edge with their legs poked through thin railing. A pang of supreme hatred stings his every freckle for each second he’s got to see _that_. “Oi!”

Zoro glares over Luffy’s shoulder towards his ex. Pissed off zero to sixty in three seconds. “Fuck off!”

“What did you just say?!”

“Shi-shi-shi!” Luffy’s closer to Zoro than Ace is, so he can put both arms around the larger man, pecking the other’s lips right under his sputtering older brother’s nose. “Thanks, Zoro!” He’s bouncing heels and elbows back up and back into the house around Ace’s hip before anyone could blink.

Ace’s throat is locked up tight. He wasn’t sure how he was still breathing – or even conscious. Both hands wrapped up in bloodless firsts, and there are veins throbbing all the way up to his shoulders. It doesn’t help his blood pressure when Zoro gets up. A great big happy smile on his face that fades out as he brings up one great green eye.

“Oi.” Zoro held out a folded paper to Ace. The other taking it and unfolding the edges. It’s a picture taken with a night vision lens. Shades of black and white. At first he’s not sure what he’s looking at when he squints, and it becomes clear.

“This is… our room?” He quirks an eyebrow. “You took this?”

Zoro rolls his eye. “No, but someone did.” The one jade iris tracks left and right, suspecting anyone and everyone as they went about their business. “But it couldn’t have been you or Sabo, because you’re both in that picture.”

Ace nods, looking back down at the image. It had to have been taken at their side window, the one over the dresser and not the one over Ace’s bed. But who took it.

“Don’t tell Luffy.” Zoro’s getting up and heading for the steps, “Just be careful.”

Ace watches the green haired man go. Gathering up a black duffle and loading it into the crimson Kitetsu he usually keeps parked and covered at the back of the barn. The roar of eight cylinders with a steam-centered shock engine shook every window of the farmhouse before he’s taken off, soon lost behind a cloud of dust.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^^~~~~~~~~~~^~~~~~~~~^~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Luffy’s dragging the end of a chain. The other end attached to a great big log. His feet getting stuck in the mud, making a squelching, sucking sound every time he managed to lift them. Ace is next to him, doing exactly the same thing because the tractor is still broke, meaning everything had to be done by hand. So those trees that fell down from those big gusts last week. Yea. Cut ‘em and drag ‘em!

“Ahhrrrr!” Giving a lunge forward with the chain wrapped three times around his chest, Luffy’s feet sink in deep. Boot cuffs disappearing under globs of black mud. After that he’s overbalanced, sent face first onto the muddy track.

Ace sighs. “What are you doing, Lu?”

The younger’s already sprung up, spitting dirty grass from his lips. “Shi-shi-shi!”

Nothing short of pure sunshine radiated from that smiling face with mud dripping down its cheeks. Wriggling to get a hold back on the chain. Ace allows himself a smile as his brother continues on struggling. Going after everything tenaciously, enthused by the rush of simple life. The man bites his tongue, tipping down the brim of his hat against the sun. He doesn’t mention the photograph.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^^~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^~

Sabo stumbles into the house at half-past-ten. His hands covered in old oil. Which is fine. He knows underneath that black coating are bruises and bloodied cuts. For a machine so large, there were a lot of places to get cut. Or it might’ve been filings of rusted metal stuck of the edges of every surface… at least he got his tetanus shots this year. He peels off his coat and shoes, putting them beside the door before collapsing onto a bench and putting his head down in his arms. He was so sure he could get the damn engine to turn over. He’d had it a couple of times, but then the great old thing died again. Choking and sputtering like a dying pig after only a few seconds. Sabo groans, arching his back as little skitters of discomfort bite him all over.

“You’re late.”

Ace’s warm body presses lightly into Sabo, and the blonde shifts to melt against the other. Sabo wrapping both arms around slim solid hips, nuzzling into warm cords of muscle along his fiancé’s neck and shoulder. “Sorry.” The blonde sighs for the kiss Ace places to his temple.

“ ‘s okay.” A hand slips up along Sabo’s aching back, trailing heat along his skin and he’s let out a small sound of appreciation. When Ace’s lips find Sabo’s, the blonde relaxes completely, leaning himself on the support provided by the other.

They kiss, quietly. Hoping like hell nobody is going to come downstairs. They’d been caught all over the place. The barn, the bathroom, the pipe shed… Dadan personally promising to kill them if she catches them making out in her pantry again. It aggravated them both, having such little privacy. Bordering on none. The best they’d managed yet only amounted to petting in a coat closet. An empty room never lasted. Someone would always interrupt. There was nobody around tonight though.

 _Figures._ Ace brushes a few strands of wavy blonde hair from Sabo’s brilliantly blue eyes. Fingertips gently acknowledging the smooth scar tissue around the other’s left eye. He can see the flutter in those blue eyes, announcing the desperate need for rest.

Ace presses a slick tongue between Sabo’s parted pink lips as they kiss. Lips wet from each other’s saliva. Sabo’s suddenly alive and kissing back, arms tightening around his freckled lover when, just as suddenly as it had come, he’s slumped on the other’s shoulder.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading!!!


	14. Free

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I do not own One Piece or any of its related materials.

The blood red Kitetsu streaks between other _lesser_ cars and long trucks. Signs for BF 88 indicate a lane over and take the exit. Zoro slows at the end of the ramp, a set of traffic lights red as always. The GPS blinking steadily has him turning right here, then a left, then another right… He can’t remember the way himself. Never has been able too. The way through East Town to the docks on the far side. The ocean takes a person away after that. To other places of the world. The blacksmith isn’t interested in those places though.

Lights flash green and Zoro turns the wheel. He can remember that last time he’d been here in East City. That last time he picked up that damn arrogant blonde fuck.

 

*** _Flashback_ ***

During another summer, a long time ago. Zoro still has both his eyes, and Ace is still in love with him.

“When are you coming back?” Ace has his hands rolled up in the sheets and blankets covering him. It’s the crack of dawn, and he’s just woken up to find his boyfriend _packing_.

Zoro adds a couple t-shirts to his black duffle. “I’m sorry.” He says, and it really looks like he means it. “I can’t pass up this opportunity. You understand, right?”

Ace scowls, turning his face away. “You can race anywhere.”

“ ‘che – That’s like saying you can be free anywhere.”

 

They left on bad terms, Ace refusing Zoro’s kiss before he’s loaded up everything in the white Wado and left for some track out in the world. Leaving him at the mercy of his ‘foster family’.

“You’re back. Good, you can help Magra rake out the stalls.” Dadan’s blew thick smoke from between her teeth. It’s the first thing she says when Ace manages to drag himself through the door. He doesn’t have a choice but to turn around and head back outside. He does notice Garp there, sitting across from the red haired woman. Papers on the table and two mugs between them.

Ace drags his feet in the dust. Kicking at small rocks. He’d just turned eighteen, so the last thing he wanted to do was work. Flouncing through the open bay door and taking a flat edged shovel from its rack. When he makes it around the corner for the long alley connected to individual stalls, Ace sees the big man Magra leaning against the wall. Tall red Mohawk nearly brushing the roof. Straw flew from the nearest stall, onto a long track where it’d be shoveled and taken outside in wheelbarrows. Ace is sure who it is in there. Probably been at it all day. Sabo had been at the farm just a few months longer than Ace. They would talk about it sometimes, when they were both in bed in the room they shared. Exhausted from the day of whatever-the-hell it was they had been doing.

Magra eyes Ace as he makes his way onto the ramp and starts to push soiled straw and hay towards the end of the row. After a while, he leaves. He’ll be back every hour to make sure they’re still there. To make sure they’re still working. That was the flow of the day – never ending.

Ace leans on the handle of his shovel. Eyes up towards long widows near the roof. Outside the sky is blue. White streaks of healthy cloud passing by on a steady ever-wind. He’s daydreaming about that same sky seen from a very different set of windows. From a slanted rooftop on a blanket with his brothers all mushed up beside him. They would look up at the clouds all day, and at night they’d look at the stars.

Tears fall quietly from Ace’s eyes, and he doesn’t bother to wipe them away as he rips his eyes from the sky to bend his back.

 

Ace hadn’t noticed that Sabo’s rake had stopped scratching the ground. That the blonde teen was looking at him with the bluest eyes in the world. Watching tears drip from the other’s chin and soak into his shirt. He wasn’t going to ask, either. Sabo. He knew better than to pick and pry at someone he knew to be both volatile and damaged. He’d share what he wanted to, when he wanted to. And that would never change.  

 

* _still in flashback, but a couple weeks later_ ~~~~

“Wh-what do you mean?”

Zoro stood on the porch next to the chair swing. One hand supporting the strap of his duffle. He’s bleeding from several cuts, and his shirt is filthy. Grey and chipping with tiredness. But it was what he said that had Ace’s eyes wide, shiny and stretched. “I can’t be with you anymore.” Said with finality. With solid, rock hard truth that stabbed through Ace’s chest like a flaming spear.

“Did I do something wrong?” when Ace steps forward, Zoro turns to put his bag between them.

“No, you didn’t.” says the blacksmith, eyes pinching. But there is no hesitation when he tells Ace it’s over. They can’t be lovers. Providing no other reason except it _has to be this way_.

 

Sabo watches from a dining room window, half hidden behind a dusty pink curtain. Watches as Ace falls to his knees, curling against the wall with sobs breaking sharp out of his chest. The blonde, intensely angry for Zoro breaking Ace’s heart, is halfway out of his chair when he realizes. To start a fight with Zoro would mean letting Ace know he had feelings for him. He did still have those, right? Feelings…

He could still hear Ace’s cries through the dining room wall. Cries he didn’t have the first clue how to take away.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~^^~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^~~~~~~~~~~~

Present! ~~

“Here you are, Sabo.” Dadan’s placed a stack of papers stapled together next to the blonde’ elbow.

He puts down his coffee. “This… this is…”

“Your freedom.” Dadan’s eyes are soft. Even if she never regretted her purchase of the one and only slave that’s ever worked on her farm. He’d been handy. Indispensable, even. She never forgot the faces of those who had brought out the boy in chains and shoved him down on the block. Small for his age, and pulling himself into a ball made him look even smaller. “I hope you appreciate this.” She says, tapping ash against a tray on the table.

“I do.” He says, and Dadan can see the tears forming in the corners of his eyes. Garp had been right. He was more a son to her than a slave. He’d worked for her, and hard. He’d earned the rights he’d been stripped of. To make his own way in the world as a person, rather than as property.

Magra boots appear on the stairs, seeing Dadan and Sabo at a table alone. The blonde freely crying. “Gave it to him early, eh?” says the big man, crossing the kitchen and taking a cup from the rack.

“Well, he needs to be a free man to marry another free man.” She says, and Sabo chokes, coughing out a bit of bitter hot coffee.

“Will you not say it like _that_!” He’s gasping.

“Ah, that reminds me.” Magra sits down next to Dadan. He grins at Sabo. “I heard who’ll be planning your Bachelor Party~”  

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading!!! I really really appreciate everyone's reviews and feedback :) They really help me get my head around this fic and get it written :) Hope you like what comes next!


	15. Soldier

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I do not own One Piece or any of its related materials.

Luffy’s got one leg hooked around the back of the bench, forking spaghetti and meatballs into his mouth at top speed. Ace keeping a good pace to keep up with their little brother. Sabo can only stare. He’d always had the best table manners in the house. The Fringe not famous for a dandied lifestyle.

When Luffy gets up for seconds, carrying his empty plate away through row after row of bent backs, Ace wipes the tomato sauce from his chin. “Sabo.”

The blonde leans in for Ace unwrapping something covertly in his lap. “That’s our room?” Whispering despite the dinnertime hum of forks on plates and scattered conversation.

“Mmm.”

Sabo rests his head on the other’s shoulder. “Where’d you get it? ‘s old. Taken about a week ago.”

“What?” Ace leans close over Sabo’s ear.

He wraps an arm around Ace’s hip, “It’s dated, near the bottom, see. There’s a lot number and everything.”

“Oh.” Two grey eyes stare back at the photograph, blinking dumbly when he sees the little printed sets of code that had somehow escaped him until being pointed out.

“ ‘s from a station Den-den image.” Sabo’s nose brushes lightly along Ace’s neck. Raising lines of sparklers that trickle across the other’s body. “Hybrid Den-dens with ranges of ten thousand miles, used by the World Government CST.”

Ace knows they’re right in the middle of the dining room. At dinner. He also knows he didn’t tuck his shirt in, and it’s definitely his fiance’s slim digits trailing fire like that up his belly. “CST?”

“Critical Surveillance Team.” Sabo’s eyes return to the photograph. A black and white image of the three of them sleeping in their beds in the room upstairs. It was violating, knowing that they’d been and were probably _being_ watched. Especially when they were sleeping. “You’re not going to tell Luffy about this? Where did you get this?”

“Zoro. And no, I’m not going tell him. It’d freak him out.”

Sabo frowns into Ace’s shirt collar. Pressing a kiss to the other’s neck as he’s trying not to remember that Luffy had a nightmare again last night. It’d taken them an hour and a half-dozen beef roasts before he’d calm down enough to go back to sleep. Ace brings his arms around Sabo. Clinging tight until their little brother came back, sitting down with another heaping bowl of pasta.

“Itadakimasu!”

There is actual applause from the surrounding tables when their little brother damn near literally dives into his food. Ace curls them as they turn to watch, his chin resting on Sabo’s shoulder, “Oi, how do you know that?”

Smooth, silky blonde hair is brushed back behind one ear when Sabo turns, pressing a single slip of a kiss that brings hot blood to freckled cheeks. “I guess it’s okay to tell you now, but… I, uh. Didn’t go to any college Garp picked for me.” There’s a whooping and hollering when Luffy gets up on the table with his empty bowl, declaring it the best thing he’s ever eaten. No one sparing attention to them for a change. Not that they would have stopped this conversation if they were. Ace lets Sabo speak over his lips. Lets the other’s warm breath ghost across each nerve and raise it red. “I served a term of service with the Revolution.”

“What? You – you were a – soldier?”

Sabo half laughs. Becoming incredibly worried that telling Ace was a bad idea. The other man’s black eyebrows had come together. Cheekbones outlined by his hair like darkest of flames. He knows how selfish it was, to leave to do something like that without telling anyone. When he signed the papers he’d half expected he’d be killed. The other half of him simply hoped it. That he’d become just another name on another long list of bodies brought in from the never ending war raging between the powers of the World Government and the voices of Revolution. “Yea. I was.”

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~^~~~~~~~~~~~^^~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^~~~~~~~~~~~~

“I wish you’d move your ass.” Two copper-tanned fists have got ahold of blue tweed. Dragging a very, very drunken man off a bar stool. Said man swayed a bit, before he’s crumpled to the floor. A sheet of gold-blonde hair covering the entire right half of his face. Zoro reaches to drag the man to his feet again, but gains no better a result the second time around. Sanji hugging the base of the bar stool, bemoaning the cruelties of life.

Zoro lets out an unsteady breath. Casting a green eye around the fancy bar, that was attached to an equally fancy restaurant.

“Ah, if it isn’t Lime Head.”

Zoro’s temples throb.

“Or no. It wasn’t that… eh, what was it… moss… Mar-i-mo!” Zeff’s big hand is extended to the blacksmith, and they shake. “Been a long time, hasn’t it. Almost a year?”

“Little over a year.” Says the green haired man. “Oi, what’s the matter with him?”

Zeff peers over the edge of the bar, seeing his head bartender melted and embalmed on the floor. “Ah. Well.” The old chef reaches for a bottle. Placing it on the polished surface in front of Zoro. “Not too long after he got home from – you know, wherever it was you all went and did together.” The old man’s fingers wrap around a couple of glasses. Setting them down and filling them with a clear liquid. He smacks his lips, pushing the second glass towards Zoro. “This weird guy comes in. Wearing a cape. Says he’s been looking for our little eggplant, so we let him in.”

“Big guy? Scary ass made-up face? Tattoos and fishnets?” Zoro lets the distilled spirit burn a pool in the back of his throat, trailing down into his guts. There’s a tingle left behind on his lips that’s pleasant and warm.

“How did you know?”

“ ‘che. He’s a big queen. Ivankov. Runs this great renowned gay bar on the strand next to Lobby and Ennisen’s…” he puts down the glass, lips edging up into an evil grin. “So, did Sanji go work for him?”

The foot that comes flying from beneath the bench puts a stop to whatever Zeff was going to say. Shitty old man. Sanji’s heel slams into the thick wall of Zoro’s abdominals, the blacksmith’s hands come up to hold it there. “Nothing happened! You hear me?!!” Face stretched and pale, Sanji irrupted with rage. Though even so, Zoro can’t help the leer that’s pulling at both cheeks. “Absolutely NOTHING happened!”  

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading!!


	16. All That Matters

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I do not own One Piece or any of its related materials.

~~~~ _dream scene~~~~_

Marco stood beside his Pops. They’d come to see a friend, or so he’d been told. He didn’t think his old man was actually on speaking terms with who could only be described as his bitter rival. Roger. Yet, when the cable came. When he’d brought the message to his Pop’s side, the man’s crinkled black eyes softened. Tears falling down each cheek.

That was what had brought Marco out of the city that day. Him and Newgate.

“A, sirs. Please, right this way.”

They follow a nurse from the main lobby of Sakura Hospital. Corridors stretching off and away in every direction like springing branches. The normally heavy tread of their feet muffled by knitted marron carpeting. She brings them to the maternity ward, where they are shown to a long window. Shown a small boy, swaddled and pink. He’s lying in folds of white cloth, little face asleep.

“I will need you to sign some documentation, and we will need to copy the clause of your late friend’s Will –”

“Wait, what?!” Marco cannot contain his shock. They’d come out all this way to – adopt a baby?  _Roger’s_ baby?

The master of the Moby stood still in front of the glass. Contemplative black eyes never leaving the small helpless bundle. Ignoring his older son’s outburst, and trusting him to come to his own understanding as to _why_.   

Marco squints at the infant. It’s the last thing they needed around a bunch of irresponsible shits like they were back at the manor. As he’s standing there, mind buzzing about things like diapers and bottles, the baby wakes up. Fitting and turning this way and that. It’s when the he opens his little mouth. Letting out a truly pitiful cry laced with pain. As if the tiny boy understood he would never again see either his mother or father. It’s then that reality sinks full into Marco.

For whatever reason, his Pops is adopting a new son. It doesn’t matter where he’s comes from. He’s theirs now.

 

******* _Alarm Blares_

Marco’s eyes snap open. The room still mostly dark. He reaches for the alarm to turn it off, pulling his blanket a little higher. Just five more minutes. The truth was, he’d not dreamed about much lately. But seeing Ace again had stirred up so much. Layers upon layers of material for his subconscious mind to take and mutilate. He was only glad his dream had been about one of the happier times he’d spent near the younger.

“Oi, Marco! Thatch is making deep fried French toast and cab cakes~ Get yourself downstairs!” The frilly edge of Izou’s long lip-red kimono drifts around the thin man’s ankles as he turns and closes the door behind him.  

The blonde yawns, scratching at the back of his neck. Marco glances towards a sleek sky-blue helmet at the end of his bed. Polished and glinting from the light Izou’d flicked on. He’s been out a few times this summer. Proud to display the rare indigo Phoenix. He’s never on the high road out to the Fringe, though. Where speed limits were optional, supervision rare, and medical help – Ha! He was really going to enjoy himself on this trip.

Marco’s hands takes up a little glass cube. A single flower of pink petals edged in white is frozen within. Timeless and immortal. He puts it in his knapsack before zipping everything up and heading down stairs.

 

~~~~~~~~~^^~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Ace didn’t speak to Sabo, finishing the heaps of noodles and sauce in his bowl. Not that there existed any opportunity. He’s stacking plates on the counter when Ace gets up, leaving out the backdoor into the night.

_*Crash*_

“Oi, Sabo?!” Dogra dancing back from the bits of broken china the blonde hadn’t realized he’d dropped.

“Ah! Sorry!” He’s already got the broom in his hands when Luffy comes up behind him.

“I can do it!” he says, taking the handle. Proudly showing he knows which end goes on the floor. “Sabo should go!” He smiles, flashing white teeth as he laughs.

It’s a shock to the system. That much brightness. Sometimes giving way to intent, though inherently seeking any outlet available.  

“Yea, go on, Sabo.” Calls on of the Seven’s Water boys. “Quit breaking shit and find out why Ace is so pissed off. You are still getting married, right?” Loud barks of laughter break out around the room. Meant in fun. Sabo knows it’s meant in fun.

“Shut the FUCKUP!!” His shoulders rise and fall, chest heaving. Sabo’s cheeks are running with tears. The room gone sharply quiet, but for scant breathing over the drip of the kitchen faucet on dirty dishes.

Luffy’s brown eyes were wide. He’s standing just at Sabo’s shoulder. After several tenuous heartbeats his older brother’s eyes fall closed. And he’s taking deep breaths. Sabo doesn’t say anything, though, when he’s roughly shaken his head and run across the dining room for the back door. Following Ace into the night.

 

The blonde’s boots leave the porch, making almost no sound on the bare earth in front of the house. He turns about. Squinting for the darkness. “Ace!” There are stars out tonight, but no moon. Seeing anything could be a trick of light, or shadow over shadow. Eyes adjusting not near fast enough for him. “ACE!”

A hand comes up, lying flat on the base of Sabo’s back. Along his spine. At the same time, he’s touched from the other side, higher. His shoulder drawn back. The blonde is turned. Pulled into a slow, though somewhat painful kiss. It’s one that neither wants to break. Their hands clutching at each other, ripping shirt seams as they grapple. Sabo can feel tiny bruises forming along his lips. The sting just makes him press closer.

When their kiss is broken, they hang on each other. Gasping and hugging. Ace is first to break the silence, lying his head down on Sabo’s shoulders and holding tight to keep him there. “You could have died.” Sabo can feel the other’s words vibrate between their chests pressed together.

“I know.” He answers.

“Did you want to?” Ace asks.

“A- I- ah.” Decompressing with the harsh reality of what he’d chosen to share with the man he loved. Sabo hands hold tightly. Had he wanted to die. The answer was yes. But he can’t say that. There’s no way he can say that.  

“I’ve wanted to die before.” Admits the freckled man. “Met people who wanted me to die.” Sabo’s heart hurts behind his ribs. Hard murmurs as the edges of his eyes begin to burn. He doesn’t try to stop the flow of tears coming from him. “I’m so sorry. Sabo. I’m sorry. I should have said yes, back in that airport. We should have run away together.”

 

The starlight made ethereal beings of the two young men. As Ace bore his heart, and Sabo realized that nothing at all mattered as long as they were together. That was all that mattered to Ace. Luffy’s at one of the dining room windows. Elbows on the sill. He’s got another smile on his face. This one a little more thoughtful than before. He rubs his eyes, yawning as he turns around. He heads upstairs for the shower, and when he rolls himself in his blankets, Ace and Sabo have yet to return.    

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading!


	17. Roots of Nobility

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I do not own One Piece or any if its related materials.

Sweat and oil slide wetly. A sick slide along Sabo’s cheek. He’s shaking his head to keep the gross trickle from getting into his ear as he’s practically upside-down. Wrenching back on a great rusty bolt that won’t let go. Both shoulders screaming, and his face is all red when it finally gives. His left wrist flying off the wrench handle into a sharp metal edge on the tractor’s frame.

“Ow! Fuck!”

“Oi, yoi. Looks like you’re having fun.”

Holding throbbing fingers in his opposite hand, Sabo looks up between folds of dirty engine. The shadow of a man had blocked his light. The guy standing there dressed all in sky blue leathers and holding a bulky helmet under one arm. Marco’s grinning down at him. He groans. “You need something, go talk to Dadan.” Dismisses one blonde to the other.

“Eh? Well, you see, yoi – the something I want is you.” Sabo’s elbowing himself out of the engine block. Leaning on the edge of the compartment. There are dark drops of blood falling free of grease covered fingertips as he’s heaving himself up and over the frame. Wrapping a cloth around his forearm.

“Yea? What can I do for you?”

Marco watches the boy who’s got his back towards him. He can call Sabo a boy if he wants to, because he is almost twice his age. Sabo’s shoulders are all bent up, and he’s got large purple bags under his eyes. Had he not been sleeping? “Yoi, is it true about you? Come from Goa. Son of a counsel lord?”

Sabo’s spun around where he stands, facing the older man. His eyes are wide, the scar over his left stretching painfully as images of a life so wrong ricochet around a fatigued brain. “Wha- Where did you hear that?”

“Pops.” Marco answers.

Sabo’s stomach rolls over and over. His life before the farm. The expectations of a selective education, and an early arranged marriage. Remorseless fealty to some grand figure…. Blue eyes squeeze shut, remembering the first time he’d seen the Celestial Dragon. Wearing a mask with his own air supplied from a tank, because he would not be contaminated by others’ filthy existence. A woman stumbled in the crowd, and somehow, someone had tread onto the blood red carpet that had been laid out. He remembered the barrel of a gun. The Celestial pulling the trigger. How the woman lay dead. How no one said a word. No one raised an eye.

Marco’s putting his helmet down against the wall of the barn. Gloves and shin guard folded on top. “I’d like to know what a noble’s son is doing out here on the Fringe. The Dadan Family’s famous for smuggling, everyone knows that. Did they kidnap you?”

Kidnap? Pah! Kidnapping only works when a child is valued by their parent. “No, they bought me, from the Rows in Goa.”

Marco’s been to many Slave Rows. All over the world. Place after place. Before he chose to settle down at Moby Manor. To think this young man had been bought there. “How old were you?”

“Seven.” Curt. Simple. Sabo lifts the cloth to see if the blood’s stopped. He doesn’t want to talk about this with Marco.

“So you, yoi. You came out here the same time as Ace?” Sabo’s hip meets the workbench after he’s stepped back. Marco managing to get right into his space. The older places a first aid kit on the wooden surface, tearing wipes open with his teeth as he begins to clean black from Sabo’s arm. “When Pops told us Ace was gone, yoi –” Pain thickened the older’s words, and he swallows. “None of us got the chance to say goodbye.”

Sabo’s fingers tingle, exposed nerves firing uncomfortably. But there was no other way to clean out the black specks of filth from within the wound. So he lets the other man work, holding his arm as still as reflex will allow. He focuses on Ace, glad that this man had chosen not to demand any explanation relating to his previous topic. “He never wanted to leave.” Sabo’s teeth clench down, looking away from the open cut. “I don’t know if you already knew that, but… He told me.”

Marco smiles, and it’s a smile that it reaches his icy-grey eyes. “Did he?”

 

~~~~~~~~~^~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^^~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Luffy’s riding pig-back. Arms wound up around Ace’s strong shoulders. The other doesn’t mind. Not really. Staggering for footing on the dusty ground. It had been one of the better days. Tomorrow they’d get moving on the next thing, and the season would continue. They’re heading back to the house early, an hour or two before dinner. Dadan had told Ace before they went out that morning, to be back early. She wanted to talk to them.

They’re in the yard when the sight of two blondes meets him, standing talking to one another near the bay door. Through that door the tractor’s engine trickled out of the hood like a gruesome tongue of bent wire and sharp metal edges. Ace is torn between elation that Marco’s here, and something like panic because Sabo’s arm is all wrapped up with blood already coming through his bandage. Shirtsleeve ripped up around his elbow.

“Hey! Look, Ace! It’s Marco! Hi Marco!” Both feet thumping to the ground, Luffy’s hurrying forward. He’s got both arms around the older before they’ve both overbalanced. Landing on the dusty ground in a tangle.

Ace steps over them. “What happened?” he’s asking, a hand trailing up the back of the bandage that’d been wrapped from Sabo’s wrist to elbow. Dark red blood soaking through along the forearm.

Hearing the tinge of concern in Ace’s voice. Laced there for him. Sabo can feel his face begin to heat up. His neck, and arms. Why does Ace have to be so puppy-boy adorable, taking hold of his hand so tenderly.  

 

“Eh? So _you’re the one_ gonna plan Sabo’s bachelor party.”

“ ‘s right, yoi. That and delivery-boy.” He points towards the saddlebags stuffed full on either side of his Phoenix’s burning blue wings. He’d been given several folders and envelopes to hand over to Curly Dadan. A person he’d never yet met. Only heard rumor. The daughter of one of the most feared criminal outlets on the Fringe.

“I want him back, after that party.” Ace says, and Sabo loves the way the freckled man’s fingers grip tight on his upper arm. He sees the other’s tongue lick along a lower lip.

Marco laughs. “We’ll have him back, yoi. After we’ve shown him all your naked ass baby pictures.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading!!


	18. Borrowed

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I do not own One Piece or any of its related materials.

Luffy wakes up in the dark. All his blankets pushed off him. It’s too hot to have them. Now he’s awake, he’s not able to ignore the deafening shrill of brush cicadas and black horn crickets rising off the field. He can see Sabo’s empty bed, clear and pale from moonlight streaming in through both bedroom windows. Luffy’s not spent a lot of time with Sabo lately, because the blonde’s projects didn’t coincide with his and Ace’s. That was alright though, because he got to see his older brother at mealtimes. When they went to bed. When they got up… Now he was gone completely.

“Lu, you’re awake aren’t you?”

Quiet night drifts into the corners of every room. Lullabies told in the faint creaking of beams settling and pipes rattling. “Uh hu.”

Two arms come around the younger’s body, wrapping up to gently pull Luffy up off his cot. Ace settles back into his own bed, tucking his little brother’s smaller body up in close to his. Resting down with his chin on top of Luffy’s shaggy head.

The younger feels when Ace’s body lilts. Swept by wave after wave of fresh sleep. He smiles, nuzzling into his older brother’s neck and closing his own eyes.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~^~~~~~~~~~~~^^~~~~~~~~~~~~~^~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Three hours on a motorcycle in nigh on hundred degree temperatures on what could be considered the most dangerous passage of road and bent bridges in and out of the Fringe turned out to be a little much for Sabo. He’s numb from the abdomen down, except in places that feel they’re… thawing…  

Marco clutching his chest, unable to stop laughing.

“It’s _not funny_ , Marco! What were you thinking?” Izou’s on one side of their little brother’s groom-to-be, Thatch is on the other. Holding Sabo up so he doesn’t go crashing to the floor. The man with the auburn pompadour’s got a smile on his face. Sabo’s inner thighs burned as he was moved. Arms sore at the shoulder and elbow from where he’d been holding onto Marco. He leans on the two men, carried from the detached garage where the blonde kept his motorcycle, to the house. Moby Manor looked different from the back, only because there were so many doors. In front there had only been the one.

 

Though it hardly mattered how many doors there were. All hallways lead into the giant front room where he’s originally laid eyes on the Master. Edward Newgate. He’d heard more rumor of that man while he served the hands of Revolution than he ever heard from Ace. A man considered a pirate. Influence far and wide. With enough resources to raise the whole of the world, and drop it into chaos.

When Sabo’s found himself set down in a cozy chair, it’s that man he sees. Newgate. Sitting in his massive chair beside him. A great big mug sitting on a table. He gives Sabo a knowing grin. Perhaps laced with apology for the humiliation of his injury.

The blonde settles his face, under the eyes of his future father-in- law. “I feel like I’ve been made a hostage.” He says. And it’s real laughter that follows. There’s more beer on the table. And his arms still work. Sabo knocks the cap off a bottle and drinks half before licking his lips.

“Only because you can’t run. Don’t worry. In a day or so you’ll be fine.” Thatch and Izou had disappeared into the kitchen, and Marco was gone too. Leaving Sabo alone with Newgate. “Please, forgive our cruelties.”

Finishing his beer, he puts the empty bottle on the ground before reaching for another. He had expected to be interrogated. Expected to have to explain himself. But the other man simply sat calmly. Arm lifting yellow ale to his lips as eyes like a steady lighthouse watch over his many children.

“They call you Whitebeard.” Sabo says, setting down his third empty bottle. “Guess nobody thought to correct them.”

Newgate’s chuckles boom out of a barrel chest. Free hand thudding down onto his knee.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~^~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^^~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Sanji’s head hurts. Stinging, searing pain just behind his eyes. The afternoon sun not helping. White light bouncing off every polished surface. Flashing off the hood of Zoro’s Kitetsu right up into his face. He hides his eyes behind one slim pale hand.

“Are you listening?!” Zoro’s voice rips into the protective bubble of anguished post-inebriated haze that would normally only exist until he slept. “Oi!”

“Shut up, moss-head. J’st l’eave-me-lone…”

“Oi, WAKE UP!” a banked turn of the wheel slides both back wheels wide on the eight lane highway. Other vehicles spinning tires to get clear. Sanji’s shoulder slams into the door panel. Making him yelp and reach for what will surely be a wicked bruise later.

“You shitty Bastard!”

“ _Luffy!_ ”

Sanji’s visible eye slips, only ever so slightly. “We’ve still got the rest of the summer before he’ll need us.” Says the blonde. Repeating what he’d been told, what they’d all been told.

“He needs us now.” Zoro flicks a small note into Sanji’s lap.

Sanji unfolding it to find two sets of numbers written in the blacksmith’s heavy scrawl. “Lots? What is this, a Den-den feed?” He looks out the windows of the car. A familiar skyline with a single tall mountain just becoming clear on the horizon. North Town. His home town. Sanji’s even able to smell it. The place where Germa 66 kept their own idea of order on the streets. His nose sensitive for the purposes of his dream carrier catching hints of old memory long stored away.

“…need those Lots to find out who ordered them taken.”

Sanji rubs at his sore head. “Don’t see what’s such a big deal. What was the picture of?” he asks, slipping the note into his shirt pocket.

“The room Luffy’s sleeping in right now.”

Sanji’s snapped his blue eyes onto Zoro. “How do you know that?”

The green haired man’s grinding his teeth. Keeping up with traffic by accelerating far past a hundred miles an hour. “He was at Dadan’s Farm, one day. Just showed up there. I heard she’s keeping him there for some Vice Admiral.”

Sanji took a moment to process this. “He’s not with Shanks?”

Zoro gave a dark glare at the traffic in front of him. “I don’t think that was ever the plan.”

Silence slides knives in and out of each man. Remembering clear as day, when their small family had been torn apart. The crimson Kitesu glides between two standing pillars. Men with semi-automatic weapons on either side. Beady eyes following the roll of shiny polished-black rims.

 

Sanji closes his eyes, pushing back against the throbbing of his temples. “Sanji Vinsmoke, requesting access to all Den-den CST feeds in sector Vaga J.”       

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading!!


	19. Morning Touch

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I do not own One Piece or any of its related materials.

_~~~Flashback_

 

“You don’t want this, Newgate. You don’t want this for your sons and daughters.” Pleading. Eyes closed. Vice Admiral Garp in the service of the World’s Government. One thick fist comes down onto the mess of papers on his desk. Receiver in the other. He fought down panic as it swelled in his chest. Waiting for the other man’s answer.

He didn’t want to think what might happen to the boy, if his identity were to spread. Wounds still fresh on so many, that Roger left alive. The fact that a child had been born was shock enough, as it had been intended that Gol’s entire bloodline be ended for the crimes he committed. It’s easy to say such a thing while a hypothetical child is yet to be born. Another thing entirely when a seven year old boy is being drug to the block in chains.

“We continue to protect our own.” The voice over the transceiver drops ice into the Vice Admiral’s guts. “Ace belongs with us.”

 

~~~~~~^~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^^~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

_~~~Not a flashback_

 

Sabo isn’t sure when he got drunk enough to not notice the Moby family piling into the main room. Dragging a screen from the ceiling. Or when the slides started scrolling. Pictures of a baby, a little boy, a slightly taller little boy… all with the same eyes, the same nose, and… The blonde smiles when he notices the exact time Ace’s freckles began to darken up over the bridge of his nose. A coy smile as recognizable as dawn breaking. Now Sabo knows Ace’s eyes have _always_ been like grey bottomless pools.

“Ace is the son of great legend. Did you know that, Sabo?”

Giggling for ‘toddler Ace’ caught in frame clapping bubbles in a bathtub, the blonde gives over his attention. “No, though I’ve always wondered. At first I thought you were his father. Later… The way he talked. When he would talk. About how he grew up, it just didn’t seem to fit.”

“Ace was adopted into the Manor the day he was born.” Said the huge man, more ale passing over his tongue. “His father’s Will dictating that if he were ever to be left an orphan, he was to find refuge within my family.”

“What about his mother?”

“Mmm. She was the most beautiful woman under the sun. Standing at the side of every match we had.” Too many for the old man to remember. “Always wearing a pink hibiscus bloom behind her left ear.” The Master takes another long drink. “She died, giving birth to her son.”

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^~~~~~~~~~~^~~~~~~~~~~~~^^~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Nojiko’s clipping the green mikan stalks, dropping fruit after fruit into the basket at her back. Nami’s nearby, she can hear her sheers. It was easier for the tattooed young woman, to have her little sister helping out with the harvest. She hadn’t been around for the last four. She’d been away. Traveling the world. Living dreams.

“Nami! Nojiko!” Bellemere’s standing on the back porch in a pool of light made by the open door. Calling her daughters in for the evening.

Nojiko smiles when her sister looks at her. Because the redhead’s smiling too. Big, bright – forced. Nami had never been able to hide anything important from her sister. Not her thieving problem. Her gambling addiction. Even the guys she slept with. They just didn’t keep secrets like that.

Tonight… Nami looks up at the sky. Blinking for the chill settling over the earth so that the heat of the day is forgotten whole. Tonight the secret exists. A black mass, like an entire other being existing between them. It had been like this since she’d returned – out of the blue with a duffle on her back and boat load of cash. Distant. And when they asked her where she’d been, or what she’d done, she would only smile. Apologizing because ‘if she told us, she’d have to kill us.’

“You were with CP-0, right?” Nojiko says, accusing the other quietly in the dark as her little sister paces close. “That’s why you’re home? Hiding from someone? How much do you owe this time?”

Gold eyes flash for the darkness, starlight reflected back up to the heavens where it came. “CP-0….” What can she say? That the oh-so-secret-special-military-unit had been a bunch of pansies? That they couldn’t aim for shit, or that even _Usopp_ could plow a way through them. That they were small fry stacked up with other smaller fry – a distastefully bloody attempt to protect who was at the ooey-gooey center. The man Luffy’d been after that day propelled him further forward in history than even Robin could have predicted. “I would never work for such a sloppy organization.” She says, letting her lips curl. Remembers the man in the mask falling from High Tower. The crunch of his bones breaking on impact like waves on rock.  

“Then why won’t you tell us? Oi, Nami?”

Nojiko’s fingers dug into Nami’s shoulders. The older helplessly shaking the other, and she can only bite her lips. She can’t tell her sister. She can’t tell her mother. If it were something old and dead. An enemy defeated. Then there would be no problem. But this enemy was not dead. Was not buried. She didn’t even know who the enemy was. And that, that was the most disquieting.

Nami takes Nojiko’s hand, walking back to the house together.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^~~~~~~~~~~~~~^^~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Pale hands with long, delicate fingers rub up and down Ace’s body. Touching each curve of muscle and joint. Mapping him. Memorizing. A soft slow kiss just below his navel heats him from the inside. Back arching, and he makes a desperate sound. Blue eyes are looking at him, half hidden behind feathery blonde lashes. Pressure builds against Ace’s groin, and he bucks slowly into it, lightly groaning with a need of more…

 

“Oi, Ace! Wake up! Wake up!” Grey eyes snap open to find not his blonde riding him, but his little brother bouncing up and down on his chest. The alarm clock in his hand, and they’re LATE! Swinging himself off the single mattress, he tries to pull his pants up over a painfully sensitive hard on. “I’m going ahead, don’t take too long or there’ll not be any left!”

 

Luffy’s bounced from the room, letting the door swing closed behind him. Ace sighs. Turning to face the opposite wall. He’s still gasping. The shock of having his lover turn into his brother, even if it was just a dream. Gold hair comes back to him. Wavy locks he can comb his fingers through. Blue eyes gazing back at him. Ace undoes his fly. Letting himself hang loose before wrapping has own hand around himself. He’s leaning with one arm up against the wall. “Sabo~”  

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading!!!


	20. Missing Memory

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I do not own One Piece or any of its related materials.

_~~Dreaming, Luffy is five._

“I’m a man!”

“You’re a boy.”

Luffy’s tiny lungs beat for air like a hummingbird’s wings. Shanks leaning over him. Sitting on a stool in Makino’s bar. Air is thick with cigar smoke and unwashed bodies. Stale beer and frying oil. The redheaded man smiling at him. “Don’t worry so much!” And he’s ruffling one calloused hand in Luffy’s black hair.

 

_~~Present, Luffy is nineteen._

Luffy’s eyes come open. A split second before Ace’s alarm clock announces morning. Blinking stupidly at the ceiling. It takes him a moment to remember where he is. A single month insufficient for him to imprint any level of security. Ace’s cursing is familiar. Drifting from the squeaky mattress and metal frame as he’s rolling over and over in the blankets. Wrapping himself neatly into a do-not-disturb burrito. There are footsteps just outside the bedroom door. Muttered bits of conversation falling loosely to roll away across hallway floor.  

None of it seems real to dark haired teen, though. Sitting there on the edge of the cot with both bare feet pressed flat on cool woodgrain. Luffy looks up at the fluttering cloth curtains around one window. Chill air wafting between opened panes to bite at Ace’s ears.

The older groans when Luffy’s pulled his blanket free of his legs, casing the younger around the room until Dogra’s heaved their door open. Shouting they’re making all the downstairs lights rattle.

 

Luffy follows Ace downstairs for breakfast. Tripping on shoelaces he’d not bothered to tie.

“Mail.” Magra’s placed an envelope in Ace’s hand, turning about with more envelopes to be distributed around the dining room. Luffy hangs on Ace’s arm, big brown eyes open for Ace tearing off an edge. A card slips out, and a separate smaller piece of paper that drifts quietly to the floor. Luffy picks that up.

The older’s grey stone eyes blink as he’s turning over the card, an ornate spiraling red bird of pray over a crisp white background. _Ace._ He reads when he opens the card. _Congratulations on your engagement. Please accept this gift to spend on whatever you like. With Love, A Friend of Your Father’s._ Frozen for half a moment. Luffy is tugging on his shirtsleeve.

“Ace, oi, Ace!” he’s bouncing up and down. “Oi! Check this out!”

It’s a check. The older swallows against a dry tongue. Rocks in his throat. Sure he’s never seen, and is unlikely to ever seen again, this amount of beli. His eyes dart towards the signature line, unable to make out the red inked squiggle. But the printing below is clear as day. “Shanks?” ghosts the name of the check writer.

Luffy’s hopped down from where he’d been half climbing up Ace’s back. “What’cha say?”

“Shanks. The guy who’s a Friend of my Father’s.” He didn’t think his father had any friends. A scowl pulls his black brows together. Sure he doesn’t know this man. Shanks. Should he accept such a gift?

“Shi shi shi shi! I know Shanks!” So many white, sparkling teeth. Glinting like blazing sunshine so early in the morning. “He’s a Friend of my Father’s too.”

 

_~~Flashback, Luffy’s five._

“Behave for Makino, Luffy.” Dragon’s mane of black and untidy hair was wet with rain. His coat dripping onto the floor. Mud from his boots made tracks behind him. But he wasn’t stopping. Handing the barmaid several beli notes, he’s lifted his tiny son up into his arms. “Promise me.”

Luffy pouts. Lips puffing out as he sucks his tongue. He’s looking away over his father’s strong shoulder.

“Luffy.” Fingers tickle into little folds of elbow and knee, making the little boy wiggle and laugh. His father leaves him, for what will be three days. It’s too dangerous for Luffy to come with him to the far side of the province. Where the Kingdom is.

“Ahhh~ We gatta take care of a kid? But I was hoping we’d be ta—oof!” the edge of a whicker laundry basket is stuffed up between two ribs, sending the man’s straw hat drifting to the ground. Luffy picks it up as Makino’s sending Shanks out to fetch in the dry clothes. Plunking it down on top his head, only to find it far too large for him.

“Luffy.” The woman’s kneeling down to his height, dark green eyes like jungle vines in storybooks. She takes the straw hat from his head. Lying it down on the table nearest. The hat’s red ribbon dulling all other colors of empty beer mugs and crumb covered plates beside it. “Are you hungry?” she asks. And for answer, Luffy’s tiny belly grumbles long and anguished.

She smiles.

 

Luffy is asleep on a fluffy mattress in a room above the bar. The night quiet as death. Not even the wind is breathing. So why’s the little boy so sudden woken? Why’s his little heart pounding?!

“Found you.” The ugly whisper sinks cold into Luffy’s ear. A hand up around his mouth, a cloth soaked in chemical held over his nose.

He kicks, wriggling in his blankets before everything fades.  

 

_~~Present, Luffy is nineteen_

Ace’s tucked the check and card into an inside pocket, pulling the strings of his hat tight as they leave out the back of the house. Luffy bobbing on the heels of his feet. Humming disjointedly and out of key. Something about men and idiots.

“So how do you know Shanks?” Ace swears if Luffy’s says it’s a ‘secret’ he’ll scream.

But instead, Luffy’s arms come up and cross behind his head, looking up at the clear blue of endless sky as they walk around the back of the barn. One hand coming around, touching a raised line of long-healed scar tissue under Luffy’s left eye.

 

_~~Flashback, Luffy is five._

Luffy’s body drifts slowly back from somewhere else he wouldn’t claim to remember. Groggy and blurry eyed. He blinks rapidly. Pulling his hands towards his face to find they are covered in blood. His face is covered in blood, his shirt… Dark brown eyes come up to find he’s being carried. One armed. By a man who used to have two.

“S-Shanks!”

“It’s alright, Luffy. We’re going back.”

Back? Back where? The bar? The mansion? Luffy’s attention expands to accept that it is night. Stars and a big round white moon throwing pale light into the corners of buildings as they passed. Crunching footsteps like a metronome. Very few lights were on behind windows. Curtains drawn. The little boy squeezes shut his eyes. Tears streaming down his face. He didn’t remember anything. Nothing. “B-but… Shanks!! Your arm!!!” and he’s balling, beating tiny fists against the strong chest he was being held to.

“Oi-oi.” Shanks tightens his right arm around Luffy’s small body. Voice gentle as the warm blood trickling down his side. “It’s not so big a deal, one arm.” He says, smiling as Makino’s bar came into view. The woman is standing in a pool of light just outside the establishment’s door. Wringing her hands in her apron. “I’m glad you’re alright.”

 

_~~Present, Luffy is nineteen._

Luffy flicks a shovel full of soiled straw over the side of the wheel barrow. Sweat soaking into the fabric of his t-shirt. Ace whacking at a hunk of calcium stuck to the pen wall. “So, he saved your life. You don’t remember anything?”

“Mmm.” Luffy’s shovel scrapes on concrete.

“Is that where you got that scar?” his older brother wipes his sweating face on the back of his sleeve, pushing his hat up.

Luffy nods. “After that, Shanks didn’t leave. He stayed in a room above the bar, with Makino and me.”

“And he never told you what happened?” Ace is disappointed. Like he’d missed an important frame in a movie. Leaving him wanting.

“I never saw him again.” Admits his little  brother. Spiking his shovel down to gather up a heaping scoop. “I’ve wanted to know too. But nobody would tell me.”

Ace watches covertly from where he’s gripping tight to the shovel’s handle. Watches those brown eyes deepen. Searching a deep, deep mind for a memory that simply isn’t there. He goes back to work. Luffy does the same. Distractions are a wonderful thing. Exhausting tensions that would otherwise build and build. Wrecking whomever allows admittance beyond a passive thought.

“Someday I’ll see him again.” Ace gave pause to see determined eyes staring away. Not really seeing anything. “Shanks.”

 

   

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading!!!


	21. Special Occasion

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I do not own One Piece or any of its related materials.

Zoro’s grinding enamel from his teeth. Both hands bruising on the steering wheel. The Kitetsu’s throat wide open for speeds exceeding two hundred. Other cars on the bridges and passes don’t exist. The racer’s one remaining green eye narrowed for the blur of yellow lines passing to’n’fro underneath the wheels of his red demon. Sanji’s blonde head lolls towards the passenger side window. Having been asleep for a while now. Long enough for what they’d found out at the observation center to wedge neatly into all of Zoro’s sore spots.

Luffy’s Grandfather.

He’d met Garp. Once. A man certainly fit to be related to someone like Luffy. Or was it Luffy that best resembled his elders? He had graying hair, flipping burgers on a four foot grill. He’d thumped Sanji good, for attempting to take over. As the weekend went on they’d nearly all realized the physicality of Luffy’s extended family. Fists of love not withstanding. 

But nobody said shit about him being a gawd-damn Vice Admiral in the World’s Government.

The idea of a Vice Admiral sending a bunch of dirty thugs out into the fringe to deliver a photograph was harder to swallow. World Officials are, if nothing else, clean. No. Garp hadn’t ordered that. Only people with something to hide use such lackies. People who are they themselves, hidden. Puppet masters with no faces. No names. They piss Zoro off. Hiding behind thick curtains only to taunt the strong.    

Hot tires grip the rutted freeway, a heady growl vibrating up through the vehicle. Building to a roar. BF 24 streaks by. Zoro presses his booted foot down, forcing metal pedal to metal frame.

 

~~~~~~^~~~~~~~^^^~~~~~~~~~~~~~^~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Sabo stands in Ace’s bedroom in Moby Manor. On the top floor, two doors down from Newgate’s master suite. His family had decorated his door while he’d been away. With a wooden nameplate, and tufts of fluffy blushing hibiscus – plastic flowers, of course. Inside the room had been maintained, a monument. Like a shrine. Photographs speckled the walls. Ace with all his family; at the beach, in the snow. Ace up on Marco’s shoulder. Ace laughing as he’s being bounced on Newgate’s knee.

The blonde’s eyes trail over a smattering of finger paintings. Of pencil drawings. A tiny snowboard made for a child. Everything that had belonged to Ace. Because they were expecting. One day. He would come home to them.

There’s a rustle outside the door before Thatch’s poking his heavily lacquered pompadour into the room. Smiling a devil’s smile. “Sabo? You ready?”

Blue eyes sigh. Writs and collar already itchy for the oh-so-fancy-fabric of the suit he’d rented. He wasn’t used to it at all, shifting weirdly and getting tugged in odd places. “Where are we going?” he asks, hoping this time he’d get an answer.

Thatch adjusts his butter yellow bowtie in the mirror over Ace’s dresser. “Just some little place on the Strand.” He says, slicking a palm over all that lacquer. “It’ll just be you, me, Marco, and Izou.”

“Is this a strip club?”

Thatch’s lips twitch up, but he holds pretty well a poker face. Except that his ears are all red. Telling Sabo to get downstairs. They had a car waiting.

 

~~~~~~~^~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^^~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^~~~~~~~~~~~~^^~~~~~~~~~~~

Dadan’s sorting filthy workpants from filthy work shirts. Any abandoned beli filling a little ceramic pig over the double washer. She gets to Luffy’s cargos, knowing instantly they’re his for the chewed bones tucked deep into the folds of fabric. The orange pair belongs to Ace. Who hardly ever forgets to empty his pockets. The woman unfolds the black and white photograph of her tenants all asleep in their room.

Teeth coming together through her cigarette.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~^~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^^~~~~~~~

A little place on the Strand. Half a block from the department stores of Lobby and Ennisen’s. Forty foot steel spires stab upwards to form the modern look of the building. Painted a bale plum and alight with neon lights. Accenting advertisements or products depending on the angle.

“Ivan~” Marco’s greeting a man with a big hairy chest. More makeup than anyone would know what to do with. “This is our Ace’s groom-to-be.” The blonde introduces Sabo, a bow between them.

Ivankov’s huge painted eyes all but salivate, offering a hand of long glittering fingernails. “My, my. But it is a lovely frame you’ve been born with.” He pulls Sabo in close, a hand trilling and threatening along the line of the blonde’s spine.

“Hands off.” Izou’s pale arms wrap around Sabo’s chest, pulling him back against the smooth silk of his kimono.   

Ivankov raises his hands. A small chuckle on his lips. “As you wish.” But that quirked eye most certainly is laced with curiosity.

Sabo’s lightly gasping, without even realizing it. “We don’t have to go inside…”

“Oh, don’t be like that, yoi. Ivan’s always looking for hot bodies. It’s your own fault for having one.”

Strippers. Sabo’d never seen a need to go to these places. Waving beli notes for the hope that one more piece of clothing might go missing. The beer was always bad. Somebody always got food poisoning. Not that he’d actually ever _been_ to a club before. Only heard stories from other hands on the farm.

“Welcome back, Marco-sama. How many will your party be this evening?” asks an adorable green haired hostess. Sea shell earrings touching the curve of each shoulder.

“Four.” The slender man leans elbows on the counter, “Something good.” He says, winking a silvery eye. “Tonight’s a special occasion.”

 

A special… occasion…

 

Sabo’s drinking. And he’d drinking a lot. Letting the burning sensation on his lips rewrite everything he’d ever heard about clubs. Marco leans forward. Brushing the folded edge of a hundred-beli note along a sweating, heaving chest. Sabo licking dry lips. They’d picked from a long list, and in the end he just looked for one that sounded interesting. The Crocodile. At first sight, the dancer looked like any other man. Tall, broad, pale skin over a firm body. Both hands sliding off thin shorts that were only a suggestion of modesty. Only maintained to entice clients.

 

Sweet smelling oils drip from thick fingers, dropping in clear glops onto the tabletop where Sabo’s forgotten there’s food. Lifting a shot of strong warm bourbon to his lips as one of those long fingers slips between the man’s own cheeks and enters into his body. Wracked moans escaping parted lips. Working himself open as they all four watch.

 

“So, that’s how it’s done?” Sabo’s whispering into his next strong shot. Flicking back one elbow as the show is only beginning.      

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading!! Thank you for reviewing!!! Domo Arigato!!!!!


	22. Apart

 

Sunrise flares like reaching arms of yellow and white fire. Catching Sanji in his blue eye, and waking him up. Finding he's in a vehicle not surprising to him. The rapidly ending roadway in front of him however, is. The man next to him pushing the blood red Kitetsu well over two hundred miles per hour.

He's let out a yell that's quickly cut off by the belt over his shoulder, catching him hard in the chest. Vehicle shimmying violently for the corrections of assisted anti-roll, and Zoro's danced the front wheels to a complete stop exactly half an inch from tumbling off the ridge line into the ocean.

“What! Wh- wha...” Sanji's lungs heave air in and out of him. Adrenaline fueling the scowl that pulls his face grotesquely out of shape . “You _Shitty LUNATIC! Marimo! Bastard_! Y-you-!” Unable to continue shouting at the green haired man in the driver's seat next to him. Zoro's set the break and getting out of the vehicle anyway.

 

“Franky!!” Hopped down off the ramp onto a stone staircase behind it, Zoro's left the hung-over blonde letch to look around. To realize where the they are, and get his skinny ass _moving_.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~^^~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^^~~~~~~~~~~~

 

Hunched forward, Sabo's head throbs. He can't see anything but blurry colors. Fingers pulling at blonde hair, and he digs his nails behind his ears. The spinning lights in his eyes are from all those razors cutting up the back of his neck. A spike impaled through both temples, and it feels like they're being expanded to stretch apart his skull. Almost wishing the bone would shatter, and he could just die already...

 

“How could you let him get so drunk, Marco? You really are trying to kill him, aren't you?!”

“I wasn't _counting_ , yoi. I was only buying.”

 

 _Oh yea_. The events of the evening whirl, and Sabo's lowered his head below the rim of the toilet he's clutching to. Clean porcelain cold beneath feverishly shivering fingers. Back bowed sharply as he's turned entirely inside out.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~^^~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^^~~~~~~~~~~~

 

Ace scrubs at his arms. Washing sweat and dust and mud off his tan skin to send it swirling down the shower drain. Warm water falling across the freckled young man's neck and corded shoulders. Rivers down the line of his spine to loosen tight muscle that had been abused all day stringing barbed wire along a fence two miles long. One of the boundaries between the Dadan Family farm and surrounding Fringe territories. It had to be done every few years, and Ace hated doing it. At least he hadn't been cut. Luffy's hands and arms were covered in small nicks, or full-on slices. Some of them needed stitches.

A long, long day... Ace lets hot water fall onto his face, flow over his neck and down onto his chest. Trying but failing to ignore the full erection cutting the water neatly while bobbing up at him. Swollen and red. Missing Sabo. The sound of his voice. Touching his hands. Being touched by his hands.

Imagining his blonde Fiancé's masculine hands, gentle pale fingertips roughened by years of chores, Ace wraps his own hand around himself. Reaching to roll his sack. Pulling lightly, as he's licked his lips. _Sabo_.

 

Moving the tunnel of his hand around his own hard prick, Ace wishes _wishes_ he knew what it was like to have Sabo do this to him. To have the other man's soft warm lips over the head of his cock, taking him deeply down.

 

“Ahhah -”

 

Or to have his lover inside of him. Sabo holding onto his hips with both hands. To feel the blonde pull Ace back, and ride him. To rut hard as he's panting in his ear. Maybe he would bite into the neck in front of him? Slap the flat of his hand lewdly against Ace's ass. Listening, as they lift each other higher and higher, until they've broken completely apart.

 

“Hh- ah _aaah_!”

 

Jets of thick seed splash between Ace's feet before being carried away by warm soapy water.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~^~~~~~~^^~~~~~~~~~^~~~~~~~~~~~~^^~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

“I see.” Dadan's cigarette has almost gone out, burned right to the back of the woman's thick knuckles, and she's not had a puff. “Well _someone_ gave it to Ace.”

“Impossible!” Vice Admiral Garp's indignation, though spoken with volume was obviously edged. The curly haired woman certain he's even now considering his own private suspicions. “No one has access to the Den-feed, outside the World Government.”

“Then I would look into your own home, Mr. Vice Admiral.” Hissing through clenched teeth, “But get your eyes out of mine.”

“You think you know what you're up against.” The old man's hacked up a few chuckles, “Fine. I'll pull surveillance off Luffy.”

“That boy...” Dadan's said, snuffing out the spent and singed filter of her cigarette into the tray at her elbow. “He _does_ know, doesn't he? What he's up against.”

Garp is quiet on the other end of the receiver. She can hear the sounds of everyone working and talking in the yard outside. “It is not time yet, for Luffy.” Heartbeats. Garp's voice a lament, of a deep knowing he's unable or unwilling to share. “They all know that.”

 

 _All_?

 

Dadan's hung up the receiver, the glittering white shell in front of her face she can't even see. _Damn that Garp_!!

 

~~~~~~~~~~^^~~~~~~~~~~~~^~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^^~~~~~~~~~~~^~~~~~

 

“Feeling any better, yoi?” Marco's still smiling, looking damn smug with himself. Izou smacks him on his shoulder, sitting down next to Sabo to slide a cup of hot black coffee under the blonde's nose.

“Looks like you four had a full and entertaining evening.” Vista's standing in the doorway into one of the back kitchens. Twirling his long mustaches while Izou, Thatch, and Marco tended their charge. Sabo's eyes unable to focus on anything, and he's almost slammed his face down onto the table a couple of times.

“Yoi, it was. You should'a been there.” Marco's put his head back in his hands, dazedly staring up at the ceiling. Reliving the night, especially those spectacular ten or twelve minutes he'd gotten up on the tabletop with their dancer. Still able to taste rich cigar ash on his tongue, Marco smiles like an idiot.

 

Sabo hangs his head over his coffee. The smell of it panging rich and heady in his nose, like wood smoke. His evening a blur of beautiful bodies and booze. Trying to hold onto every detail, even as the backs of his eyes sting and burn. Drinking down the coffee, and he only wants to lie down... preferably with Ace. To hold onto the other, and smell his skin. Lay his head down on Ace's chest and listen to his heart beating... The blonde lets a hollow moan out of him, folding both arms to put his head down on the table.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading!! I know these updates are ridiculous, and this story is a couple years old... This is the third laptop I've carried over to, and I've lost all my original notes. I just don't want to leave this work undone, so I'm gonna try :) I hope you enjoy it, and I hope the stupid long time lapses between updates doesn't show too glaringly obvious. Comments are welcome <3


	23. the Master's Story

Moby Manor is cool and quiet. The goodly house aglow with pale moonlight, windows with curtains thrown wide over the grassy yards and tree dotted properties. Lights of the city of Paradise behind. Sabo staggers on the lower stairs, a firm hold on the thick wooden rail as he's making his way down to the main floor. Needing something to drink, his head still vaguely throbbing.

 

“Feeling any better, Sabo?”

 

Edward Newgate sat in his enormous chair, knees bent with feet flat on the floor. Drinking sake in the dark. “ 'm not sure, yet.” The young man answers, directing his feet towards his host and lowering himself into a smaller chair beside him. Being passed a mug, it's filled with clear-stringent sake from the man's own flask. Sabo's heart sinking for the expectation he keep drinking, but he is not about to refuse the Master of Moby Manor. The man who will technically become his father-in-law.

“You will be leaving us tomorrow?” Asks the older, sitting back with a creak of white wood.

“Yes.” It's what Marco had told him. It was time. Sabo missed Ace, and terribly. Much, much more than he had even during their years recently apart.

“Then there is one last story you must hear, before you go.” Lifting the bottle of sake, grizzled neck working as he's swallowing down great gulps of alcohol. “It may be a long story.” He's said, setting the container, now empty, down on the floor.

“It's about Ace?” Of course it is, and the thoughtful smile that pulls under that white mustache confirms it. Sabo sitting up straighter, reaching for his cup.

 

 

~~ _The story Sabo is told_ ~~

 

“We will continue to protect our own.” The rumble of his voice. The Master of Moby Manor. “Ace... _belongs_ with us.” He's not waited for the Vice Admiral's reply. Not wanting to hear what he really, truly does not wish to hear.

 

Ace had been hurt. That day. Atmos, Blenheim, and Marco, they had decided to take their little brother all the way across Paradise to Clover Library as a surprise celebration for his seventh birthday. Taking the wide eyed child up bubble elevators, and visiting the many exhibits specially selected for children to enjoy. He'd been happy and smiling, rushing about everywhere.

 

 

“What did he say, yoi?” Marco's stood at the base of the stairs, at his Pops' shoulder. Newgate taking a deep breath in though his nose.

“That Ace should be taken away. Somewhere he will be safe.”

Marco's normally bored looking face twists in outrage. _He's safe with us!_ Echoing between his ears, but he's biting both lips together. Unable to voice a word of it, because Ace wasn't safe with them. Obviously.

“This is not your fault, Marco.”

“We were there, yoi.” Blood snakes from between the blonde man's lips, and he wipes it away with his shirt cuff. “We just... we looked away for just one minute...!”

 

A minute of violence. For Ace's innocent eyes to scoot up and see a poster for a book that would be made into a move soon. Centered around a famous criminal, a man ultimately condemned to death (though it didn't say any of that on the poster). When a man came up, towering over Ace and asking him, “You look very excited, do you like movies?”

The small boy bobbing his head, rolling up and down on the soles of his feet. And because he knew no better, pointed at the face of the criminal that was familiar to him... “That's my first dad!”

 

 

“A-am I … s-something bad?” Marco's arms hold snug around Ace. White bandaging taped to the young boy's face. Blackened left eye, and two stitches in his lip. Tears fell down his small, freckle dusted cheeks. “Th-they said _He_ was bad... that I'm bad too...” While they beat him. Repeated over and over, they told Ace about Roger the Demon. Roger the Monster. And he was just the little Monster-Demon spawn. More than a dozen of them. Full grown men. Feet stomping down on one tiny child. Blenheim lifted one of them clean off their feet, throwing them back against a tall bookshelf and crashing it to the ground. Atmos and Marco joining the fray.

“You are not bad, yoi. Do you hear me?”

“B-but th-they said-”

“They don't know anything, Ace. And they especially don't know _you,_ yoi.”

 

Ace cried into Marco's chest, and kept crying. Long after nightfall. For the pain in his body, and the confusion making circles in behind his eyes. Only succumbing to sleep in the early hours of morning.

 

 

~~ _present conversation between Sabo and Edward Newgate~~_

 

“He... but you refused Garp? How is it Ace came to live on the farm? Who is his father?”

“Gurararara.” The old man chuckles in the dark, uncorking a new bottle of sake. “His is, as he was... a great man. A man I contended with in every way. Roger. Gol D Roger.”

 

 

_~~...continuing the Story Sabo is told~~_

 

“We should never have told him, yoi.” Marco's standing in the kitchen with Thatch, helping the other in loading up bag lunches for their trip to the seaside. Pops wanting to distract Ace, and it was the dead middle of summer.

“I don't know about that.” Thatch's nodding his head thoughtfully, pompadour bobbing over his forehead. “Not many of us got the choice to know if they had a real father or not. Not telling Ace where he comes from would be crueler, surely.”

Marco's made a noise in the back of his throat.

“Besides, there's not point moaning about what he _should or shouldn't_ know, because he _does_ know. Nothing's gonna take that back now.”

 

Nearly the whole household had gone on the mini-vacation. Piling into sixteen separate vehicles to form a massive conga line onto Reverse Highway. Ace laughed, sitting on Marco's lap. He still had bruises around his eye, but they didn't keep the smile off his bright little face. Freckles across his nose. When they get the ocean, he's out like a shot. Standing up on a nearby bench to watch the waves crashing up on top of the sand.

“I wanna swim! I wanna swim! Marco! Marco, come with me?!”

 

 

_~~Present conversation between Newgate and Sabo~~_

 

“Something happened out there, on that beach?” Sabo places his mug down on the table. Empty. Sat forward with elbows meeting his knees and his hands clasped together. The man beside him staring. Staring into another time, and another place.

“We were unprepared...” Utters the Master of Moby Manor. “...for such hatred.”

 

 

_~~The rest of the Story...~~_

 

Marco's lip bled freely down his face, dripping onto his bare chest. Blonde hair pulled back and there's another blow across his face. Gunshots ripping through the air, and several people scream.

“THIS little filthy rat!” Ace's tiny body is thrust out into the center of a leering circle of hundreds and hundreds of people. Marco held up so that he can see. “This is the son o' the Devil, in'it?”

“Ace is my son!” Newgate's fame is rooted in his prowess, and power... Any man, however, can be brought to his knees. No less than six bullet holes seeping blood from his chest. One lung half collapsed. Laughter fills the air all around, like wild animals circling weak prey. They shove the old man down. Stomping on his back. His other sons and daughters struggling their way towards them. But the mob is too thick.

“ _Oyajii_!!” Ace's little voice, and he's up on his feet. Running for the older man. Only he never makes it to his Pops. Caught around the neck by a rope, and they're roaring, spitting gross mirth into the sand.

 

 

_~~Present~~_

 

“Authorities arrived, and they put a stop to the riot.” Edward Newgate's hand drifts to his chest. Sabo able to see several raised white scars left by bullets. “When Garp insisted again... as Ace was being taken away on a stretcher. I did not refuse him.” A long sigh lets out of the old man's lungs. “I allowed him to take my son.”

“You saved his life.”

“Gurarara.” Leaning forward, Newgate's placed a huge palm down on Sabo's shoulder. A quiet acknowledgment in understanding that sometimes saving a life wasn't near enough. “I have some feeling that the one who truly did save Ace's life is you.” Crinkling beetle black eyes as he's smiled, the younger blushing hard in the first rays of a lifting sunrise. “I will be giving him away again, soon. This time to you. I leave him simply in your care, until then. Please look after my son, Sabo.”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading!! Reviews always welcome!


	24. Smoke and Seaside

Vice Admiral Garp commits himself to the office full time, unlike many of his upper echelon cohorts. “Sir.” Several aspiring Detectives work for the age-grey Marine Hero of a bygone era. At his every beck and call. It made managing the city of Paradise much easier.

“What is it, Smoker?”

The silver haired man has been under Garp for almost a decade. Specializing in high-risk missions, kidnappings, money laundering... He's shoved a file under the man's nose. “This boy, the fugitive worth five hundred million in reward beli-” Voice lowered to a barely audible register. “He is _your grandson_?!”

The older grins. A half-line of blunted white teeth showing. “Good job! You found all this out all by yourself-?”

“Cut the crap, Sir. _You_ had the boy smuggled out onto the Fringe, didn't you? Is that your solution for this problem?”

“You ought to be promoted!” Stepping around his Detective's curling shoulder, the Vice Admiral's laughing. Huge booms of mirth out of deep lungs that make every head around them turn. “What am I paying you?”

“ _Garp_!”

 

~~~~~~~~~~~^~~~~~~~~^^~~~~~~~~~~^~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^^~~~

 

Ace is dressed in blue jeans, boots, and one of Sabo's old white button-up shirts that's more off-white now. Dadan having given him and Luffy the day off. They've been working hard every day for her, since their brother had left them. Said brother due to arrive back that afternoon.

So, since the sun had come up. There has been the _waiting_...

The freckled young man pacing circles around Luffy's cot in their bedroom after breakfast. His little brother getting up to follow, as Ace's expanded to marching through the whole house. Repeating great big loops until he's passed Dogra too many times, and been ordered into the dining room. To sit on his ass. There's nothing he feels like doing, but yet can't hold still.

Luffy's stares at his older brother, chin set down on folded arms. He's still got bandages taped over deep gashes from when he'd been cut up by fense-wire the other day. “Why's Ace so worried?”

Luffy is nineteen years old, but when he's asking a question he can make it seem like he's just a little kid. Curious, in the most purest of forms. Ace letting a long breath out of him, sitting up. “I'm not worried, Lu.”

Brown eyes blink, and look to one side. Luffy biting the inside of his cheek. Obviously wants to say something, because his little brother knows Ace's just lied. It makes the older's insides squirm about, tying into uncomfortable knots.

“Look, I'm just _excited_ to see Sabo. That's all.”

Luffy's latched onto his brother's sentence and thought hard. Grumbling in the back of his throat. About to say something else, when they're both distracted by tires on the gravel drive outside. Off the bench seat, and outside on the porch. A butter-yellow hatchback Turtle pulls up right in front of the house, dry dust clouded behind it.

 

“Sabo!”

Luffy's blonde brother's back meets with the open car door. The younger wrapping him up in a hug, hanging off Sabo's hips with legs clasped all the way around his back. “I missed you too, Lu.” Snuggling back as he's moved to get the car door shut.

Thatch already out of the driver's seat. Stepped up onto the porch. He's pulled Ace into a strong embrace that they both hold onto. “I guess I'm going to have to get used to this ' _you being as big as me_ ' thing.” Says the bearded man, as he and Ace turn. Watching Sabo getting his duffle from the backseat. Luffy at his elbow, talking a mile-a-minute. Ace smiles, and it comes from the very bottom of his heart.

 

~~^~~~~~~~^~~~~~~~~~^^~~~~~~~~~~~~~^~~~~~~~~~~~~~^~~~~~~

 

Robin's set down the Den-den receiver. Franky, Zoro, and Sanji all seated around the wide kitchen table in her and Franky's home beside the sea. “Makino-san,” the woman's licked dry lips. Deep violet eyes darkening under narrowed black brows. “...she and Shanks, they both confirm. Luffy never came to stay with them.”

“ _Super_ not Super. That was the basis of this little truce, wasn't it?” Franky, furious, slams a fist down onto the table. Rattling everyone's glasses as huge tattooed arms tighten.

“It was.” Robin, unphased by the man beside her.

“Technically...” Sanji's sighed, finally recovered from his blasting hangover, largely due to one of Franky's wild concoctions of banana, egg, milk, and ice. He's flicked the ash off the end of his cigarette into a small tray on the table. “...the deal was ' _Luffy be kept somewhere he'd be safe_ '. Shanks' custody, while offered, wasn't officially _signatured_ , and the loopholes only widen from there...”

“Luffy was first taken to a Government Holding Facility not far from Paradise.” The green haired blacksmith has already heard everything Sanji read in the report he'd found. Time to think long and hard about every detail on the long drive out this far. “Dates put him there four days, before inexplicably vanishing from the paperwork.”

“A breakout, kept quiet.” Robin's guessed correctly.

Zoro nods, gold jewelry chiming under his left ear. “At the same time, guess who else got out?”

“Buggy?” Robin's guess.

“Monet?” Franky's guess. Zoro shivers visibly. One jade eye glaring at his blue haired nakama. Not wanting to hear that woman's name. Crazy harpy-skank.

 

Sanji's put out his cigarette, immediately reaching for and lighting another. “Name's Jack.” He says, blowing a cloud of thick golden smoke up over the table. “Piece. Of. Work. Gets kicks shooting at livestock. Runs gang wars across the continent, and participates in the occasional beatings-up of random victims...”

“He works for Kaido.” Zoro's rumbled in his chest, digging his fingers into the hard thigh muscle under the table.

Kaido, a notably unstable maniac. His _people_ worked for him because he was so volatile. Easy to manipulate, the man was often taken advantage of. This fact only fueling a massive fire of distrust that he had reputably been born with. Murdering both is mother and father. Most of his men wind up dead, or left maimed. A real beast, let roam under a red sun.

“So we only gatta keep that bastard away from Luffy until it's time?”

“We don't _know_ Jack is after Luffy.” Baring his teeth under a blonde fringe. “We don't know the relationship he has with Kaido. Or the circumstances of the shitty escape. If he really is dumb enough to go after Luffy again... We don't even know who it was gave our mossy-idiot the photo attached to the shitty Lots we traced-”

“All we do know.” Zoro's put both tanned elbows down on the table. Fingers drug through strands of green hair. Pressing his forehead hard into both palms. “Something's coming.”

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading!! Reviews are always welcome :)


	25. Not a Child

“Whatcha do?! Whatcha see?!” His littler brother's hanging off his arm, Sabo staggers in the dirt. Thatch waving as he's slipped back into the driver's seat and reversed out the drive. Soon hidden from sight behind swirls of dry dirt. Other hands on the farm hollering welcomes at him as he's succeeded in righting himself. Allowing Luffy to wrap lithe limbs up around him, to essentially carry the other up the farmhouse steps. Ace peeling their little brother off his fiancé before they're able to make it through the door.

 

“Welcome back.” Dadan, midway through the afternoon's meal preparation. Shutting the oven door on a set of meatloafs. The three young men coming to sit at the table in front of her counter. “How was your Bachelor Party?”

Sabo's whole face and most of his neck turns red, settling in his seat beside Ace. Luffy at his other elbow, while the woman's waggling her cigarette at him.

“Did the fuel regulator come in?” Cutting cleaning across the topic. It doesn't help that Ace's grey eyes absolutely glitter in curiosity.

“It did, actually. But you'll have today off. I've given one to these two. So spend it together.” She's ladling stuffed cabbages into three large bowls, and set them down in front of them. Basking in the reflected relief that's shown up in the young blonde's face. Though how could she make him work as soon as he's home? Half the day gone. No reason for that. “Speaking of time off.... Ace.” She's fixed green eyes on the freckled young man. “Your dear family will be sending someone to collect _you_ , in a few days.”

“Me- really?” Grinning ear to ear.

“Of course, you have a Bridal Shower to attend.”

“Bridal Shower?” Luffy's licking his bowl clean. A bit of sauce on the end of his nose when he's pushed it towards the counter for seconds.

“That's right.” Dadan's told the youngest brother, ladling in another few heaping spoonfuls into his bowl. “We'll have to pick him out a pretty dress.”

“I told you I'm not wearing a dress... _Sabo?_ No!! I'm _not wearing a dress_!”

 

~~~~~~~~~~~^~~~~~~~~~~^^~~~~~~~~~~~~^~~~~~~~~~~~~~^^~~~~~~~~~~~~~^~~~~~

 

“... as a Thank You, for your _future_ services.” Bloodstained money changes hands in the darkness. An alley, behind closed doors. Monkey D Dragon shakes on the deal he's made. Unsure yet, if it will be one worth his keeping. Instead he's eager to be gone from the shady meeting. Finally come, in the course of his travels, to a place in the world he can get messages in and out. The last conversation he'd had with his son ringing between his ears.

 

“ _How long_?” Luffy's got his thin arms crossed over a freshly bandaged chest. Those nine others around him. Somber, serious, loyal faces.

“ _The Reverie.”_ He's said. Dragon's hallow brown eyes meeting with the man who's stood closest to his son. Green hair, and three gold dewdrops pierced into one earlobe. Thick bandaging wrapped around the left side of his face. “ _Wait until then.”_ He's told his son. “ _When the balances of power settle. Then you may make your war._ ”

“ _It's not my war._ ”

“ _You want to be King_?” Different sides of earthly coins all spun in the air about their heads, and then settle. Marines, Nobles, Revolutionaries, Pirates, Bandits, Slaves, and the masses who exist between. “ _Great Kings only rise after they've fallen._ ” Dragon's lowered his voice, tattooed face drawn. Searching the expressions of his son. So alike in appearance to when he was a boy. Luffy has more than one scar now, though that one under his eye remains most noticeable. He's not a child anymore. “ _You have to be ready to fall_.”

“ _I am._ ”

“ _You think you are._ ”

“ _I'll do whatever it takes, so I'll never be left alone._ ”

 

Alone. The thought, the very word rang true pain through the Revolutionary Leader's son. After he had been left... _alone_... in the mansion. Luffy'd been barely able to walk and talk. His mother dying, quite suddenly. When Dragon had returned from a matter of business , his son had been bawling for hours. Clung to her dead wrist. Maybe days. Climbing up into his arms. Unable to speak, Luffy cried into his father's neck until he'd passed out of simple exhaustion. From that moment onward, he'd accompanied his father everywhere he went. Until the day he'd turned sixteen, and old enough to reach out. Making friends in the world....

 

Dragon's put a key into the safe-box, extracting a handful of letters addressed to him by those who knew he'd be there. Climbing the stairs to his rented room.

He'd swear he'd only blinked, and the years of Luffy being sixteen, seventeen, and eighteen vanished. Suddenly. And with no warning. When he saw his little boy again, he was a man of nineteen. Come back from a three year journey all the way around the world. A _family_ built, and behind him. Asking his father's advice on becoming one of the freest men on earth.

 

Dragon settles his body at the desk in his room. Pulling letters forward. The one on top embossed with fancy cobalt ink on clean white. 'Master E. Newgate'.... _Old Whitebeard..._ Tattoos crinckle on Dragon's face. Grinning, as he's ripped an edge from the envelope.

 

_Your son looks nothing like you..._

 

So Luffy has been by Paradise? The father's heart gives several heavy thumps against aged ribs. Dragon barking with relief, in honest laughter.

 

_He's being looked after, and says you're well..._

 

He'd done nothing. Dragon. Stood in the falsely decorated seating room in the home he and his son had been leasing together less than a week. A perch, on the Fringes of Majiatsuka. The look given between them understood... that Luffy is unafraid. Whatever it is he dreams about, he'll chase after it. Without even one single regret.

 

He's proud of his boy for that.

 

_Come visit us, you Old Ghost. At summer's end, we will be having quite the celebration._

 

 _At Summer's End_? Dragon's hand shakes. Lying down the harmless letter. “If you only knew...” The moon is high in the sky outside. Big, round, and otherworldly pale. If any of them... only knew...

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^~~~~~~~~~~^^~~~~^~~~~~~~~~~^^^~~~~~~~~^~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

Luffy's curled up, half on Sabo's lap. Fluffs of quilt tucked around them. He and his brothers lounging together in their room upstairs, while Sabo tells them all about his time away. The blonde quirked and angled on his bed with Ace tucked in close at his back. Their window open, and there's a breeze falling over them.

 

“Glad Sabo's back.” Nuzzling into his older brother's belly, Luffy yawns widely in the afternoon heat.

“Are you sleepy, Lu?” Sabo's chuckled. Stroking quietly through the younger's black hair.

“Shi-shi- Yea.” No sooner said, and he's snoring into Sabo's shirt. Both he and Ace quietly making fun at their younger brother.

 

“So, a Strip Club, eh?” Ace's breathed into his fiancé ear. One arm come up around, to lie warmly between silky white ruffles on Sabo's shirt.

“That's right. It was really... educational.” The blonde admits. Consenting to closing his eyes. Spun for how it feels when his lover's hot hands stroke his side. Pressing into tight muscles deep in his back. Ace's lips on the tanned curve of his neck, kissing him.

“Yea?”

“Yea...” Keeping his voice low, a barely audible husk as he's whispered. “I learned a whole lot.” _And I'll show you, later._ Biting his tongue, his lips. Sabo's curled himelf protectively around the back of Luffy's dark head and shoulders. The three of them cuddled together, warm and secure.

 

They remain this way. Sabo, Luffy, and Ace. For long enough the wheat flies begin to multiply under a hazy gold sunset. Overtaken by cricket-songs for night falling thick and foggy. Luffy wakes up several times during the night. Always to find Sabo awake. Sometimes having a quiet conversation with Ace, sometimes not. They'd say a few things between them, and then he'd eventually fall back asleep. Never once letting go of either one of them, as if he feared they would not be there the next time he woke.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading :) Comments/Reviews are awesome :)


	26. Tell Me

Magra's pushed his hat back, letting the thing dangle on a string over a sweaty back. Red shock of hair flat against his scalp. Kneeling in the dirt, the man's counting footprints. Different sizes, and types that overlap on loose topsoil... At least six separate sets had been left. All within a day. Glancing up to find the dividing fence is also been damaged. Weren't no animal did it. The field beyond stretching on for miles and miles. Sharp grass and tangles of yellow weed. Not another homestead for hours in that direction.

 

Bugs hiss in dry bushes. Buzzards in the air.

 

~~~~~~^^~~~~~^~~~~~~~~^^~~~~~~~~~~^^~~~~~^~~~~~~^~~~

 

“ _Twenty-four! Twenty-five! Twenty-six!_ ”

 

Most of the dining room is swiveled in their chairs. Attention drawn to the table nearest a corner window. On Ace and Sabo, arm in arm. Keeping enthusiastic count of their little brother's progress in putting away stacks of Dadan's famous apple-cream pancakes.

 

“ _That's inhuman, man._ ”

“ _Whoa~_ ”

“ _Keep 'em coming!_ ”

 

Sabo's clutching his stomach. Face all red. Ace's fingers laced with his lover's other hand. Dissolved into fits of laughter. Luffy gobbling up his thirty-fifth massive pancake, when great big brown eyes pop open. One hand held up, opposite palm up over his lips.

“Haha! Had enough, Lu? It'll still be a record.” Ace's heckled, nuzzling a freckled cheek into Sabo's shoulder.

“ _ **Bbrrrrrraaaarrr-pp!!!!**_ ” The entire dining room falls silent. No one moved. “Ah-m _eeeh_ -! So good!!” the teen's declared, Luffy taking up his fork once again. Dragging the next plate of pancakes towards him from across the table to pour on thick rivers of syrup, while everyone's clapped and cheered. Another ten pancakes stuffed into him before bouncing up onto the bench seat. Thanking Dadan for her cooking. Not the _best he's ever eaten_ , but really-really close.

“And _who's_ cooking would be the best?” Imperious green eyes laser indignantly over the curly haired woman's kitchen range. Lit cigarette bobbing between red lips.

“Shi-shishi! He's my Cook, and he's _the best_! Sanj--...”

 

The older brothers sit up a little straighter. When Luffy's syrup sticky smile shatters... instantly. “Lu?” Eyes stare forward, and a mouth half open. As if he needed to be screaming.

“ _Your_ Cook, eh?” Dadan's said loudly, spatulas and spoons whacking hard on the edges of her frying pans. “You and yours should stop in, then. Sometime. Your cook can feed my Hands for a day.”

Muddied attention tries, but ultimately catches on nothing. Luffy's pale lips that are open, close. Taken him almost a full minute to grin weakly... sort of. The look plunges icy knives into Ace's heart. Puncturing both lungs. “Y-yea! Shi-shi-shi-shi! We'll come visit Dadan!” Colder. As cold as he's ever been to memory. Frozen air trapped inside the raven haired man's lungs, laboring to make any use of it, for hearing his little brother's boundless laughter come out sounding like that.

 

~~~~~~^^~~~~~^~~~~~~~~^^~~~~~~~~~~^^~~~~~^~~~~~~^~~~

 

Robin's set down the Den-den receiver for the seventh or eighth time. “Chopper will need several days, to cross the channel and return to this continent.”

“What about Jimbe?” Zoro's knee jumps, fingers drumming against a hard thigh.

“He and Brook are in route to Paradise right now. Usopp is already there.” The woman's said. Getting up and pacing the length of the room. Come to a tall shelf full of books, she's taken them down. Setting each precious tome aside until the back is left clear. Pushing on a panel, the shelf swings in. At the same time a tall doorway opens beside it.

“Is this our plan? Whole up together, and shitty _wait_ for everything to come at us?” Smoke vents out from between the cook's white teeth.

“I could think of worse plans.” Franky's shrugged big shoulders. “Unless you've any ideas? I'm sure we're all ears.”

“I have a few.” Zoro's pushed back from the table. Gone to the doorway where his nakama's flicked on a light. It's a small room. The one eyed man already knowing all that he'll find inside.

“Zoro.” Robin's laid a soft hand on the man's arm, when he's unloaded three 302mm pistols from a dark green knapsack. “Think very hard, making this decision. Right now, we _have_ a truce.”

“They've already broken any trust we could have ever had in it.” Zoro had _never agreed_. From the very beginning. No part of him acknowledging the truce that took them all away from each other. If he has regrets in anything, it's leaving Luffy's side. “I _want it over_...”

“Aw. Are we crying? Going to pout, little lost Marimo?” Sanji stamps the butt of his cigarette into the ashtray in front of him on the table. Not four seconds when he's reaching for another.

“Fuck off, Eyebrow!”

 _He is crying_. Robin, she's standing so close to the young blacksmith. Under naked lights. “We should not push our hand, until we must.” A graceful movement puts Nico Robin before the doorless entry. Blocking his way out. “If you race at your enemies with no further thought than that, how many bullets will you need before the end?”

Weighing his weapons in his hands, Zoro's let out a rattling sigh. Shoving them back into the bag. Of course he's also swung that green bag up onto his shoulder.

 

~~~~~~^^~~~~~^~~~~~~~~^^~~~~~~~~~~^^~~~~~^~~~~~~^~~~

 

“ _Y-yea! Shi-shi-shi-shi! We'll come visit Dadan!_ ”

 

Sabo'd heard, just as Ace did. The wrongness in the pull of his little brother's voice. Making Luffy's pitch just a little higher. That he's managed to laugh just a bit too much, even for him. A tilt of his face in doing so, that hides a shimmer of tears that gather in the corners of his eyes... from most people.

 

“Dadan wants us to work on _piping_?” Hands behind a head of messy black hair, and eyes towards the sky. All big and clear over them. No clouds... “What's _piping_?” Squinting moves the scar on Luffy's face.

All three brothers standing in front of the open bay door to the barn. “Patching leaks in the pipes that feed those sprinklers.” Ace's explained, pointing way off in the distance to where three of five tall spitters tossed a haze of liquid that looked like silky gold in the new day's light. Falling over a patch of waving green.

“Wahoaa! Cool!!” Rocketing to the nearest structure he can climb. The Barn's awning support. Monkey D Luffy's climbed right up. Hand held up against the sun. Watching the tall metal sprinklers that were working. Long metal arms in rotation over a gush fed from below. A scoop on one end breaks apart the thick water, making a mist of heavy droplets.

 

Ace melts quietly, for Sabo putting warm arms around him. Lips pressing to smooth pink scars behind his fiancé's left ear. “I'll see you tonight.” He tastes like distress, or was that him? All of this feeling so... _too_ familiar. This helplessness.

 

 

“If Sabo gets the tractor working, will me and Ace get to drive it?” Boots patter on the dirt. Both brother's with shovels over their shoulders. Wandering along a raised mound of rock and earth. All along the edges of a large growing field.

“Probably.” Ace, pointing off the trail to a great big puddle that shouldn't be there. “Can you drive a car?”

“Shi-shi. No.” Watching his holder brother get the blade of his shovel in the ground. As he's dug, more and more water fills up.

“Well, I can teach you.”

“Ne, okay!” It's not as bright as before. That... light?

“Luffy.”

“Yea?”

Ace's shovel scrapes on the gravely soil. “I've been thinking,” A sluggish gush bubbles up out of the hole as he's hucked mud up out of his way. “What was it, got you sent out here?” Garp had brought him to the farm. Just like he'd brought Ace. Except Luffy is not a seven year old child. He's an adult...

“Secret.”

Scraping the metal edge against the pipe he's found, Ace huffs. Moving to push the dirt around it out of the way. “Got a lot of secrets.”

“...” Luffy's brown eyes track away from his big brother. Tracking up and down the path. He can see a run of horses on a hill not that far away. A dozen? Maybe more?

Ace keeping his own attention on what he's doing. Fitting a bracket and patch over the crack in the wide plastic pipe. The water's been turned off, but there's still some in the lines. So it's tricky. “Who's your cook?” Ace fastens the patch, and shoves it all back down into the ditch. His little brother looking back at him, like he's been burned.

“...”

“You know you can tell me, Lu? What's it gonna hurt?”

It's a flash of cognizance, wherein something bleeds a little. Hidden well out of sight, except the ripple is still made. Felt fresh. “...”

“You can tell Sabo and me.”

Ripples that build to wakes that break hard against the younger's chest. Luffy made breathless. “No.” Fingers grip hard over the shovel handle. Standing in the track as his big brother's working. “N-no! Ace... _Ace is stupid_!”

 

Dropping his shovel, Luffy's whipped away. Boots digging in to fling mud behind him. Tearing up the path. Ace only managed to climb out of the ditch in time to see his little brother's back turn and get behind something so he can't see him anymore.

 

Not anywhere.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading :) Feedback/Reviews and stuff??


	27. Slip

It is a crisp hour that exists between night and dawn. The owner of one of the classiest restaurants anywhere, Red Menu Zeff, is awake already. The old man moving his stiff joints, fitting a prosthetic leg into its cup. Been a great many years since he's had that leg, but he can still feel his foot on the floor. Toes in the carpet... Making himself breakfast, when he's heard keys jingle outside the front door. A key turning in the lock.

 

“Eh? Come back, have you?” Woven gold mustaches twitch under the man's bulbed nose. Chuckling to himself. “And here I thought I'd have Patty come back as Head Bartender.”

Sanji's hung up his jacket by the door. “Shouldn't count your shitty chickens, Ji-ji.” Kicked off polished black revenias, and joining the older man at the table. Big enough to seat two. The white lights above the stove, and hum of an ancient refrigerator calms the blonde down. Flumping his head down onto folded arms.

For some minutes Zeff's chewed his toast, and drank his coffee. Watching the young Eggplant. He's just as distracted as he'd been all those years ago. The very first time he'd been taken _somewhere_ by the green haired man he called his _nakama_. “Are you in some sort of trouble, eh? Got yourself in over your head?”

“No.” The curl of Sanji's blonde eyebrow edges up his forehead. Pulling a pale face up off his arms. “Just...”

 

He's quiet. Zeff. Even though he'd like nothing better than to kick some answers out of his adoptive son. For years he'd beaten manners and respect into him. Something Sanji's father had failed to do... though what he did do to his own flesh and blood was quite enough... Zeff had taught the blonde boy how to cook, and how to fight. The fire in Sanji's youthful blue eyes matchable only to how the older chef's had been himself, long-long-long ago. They had their differences, and their arguments. But nothing wedged with permanency.

“S-say...” Sanji's put a cigarette to his lips. Flicking a gold lighter at its base, and pulling a long drag down into his lungs. Blonde fringe covering half his face. “If you got wind of some big juicy prize, would... would you let your opposition know you knew?”

Zeff's hauled himself up out of his chair. Taking his empty plate and cup to the sink. Letting water run from the faucet. The younger man listening to the gentle clinking of silverware being scrubbed. “I'd have to say, no.” Transferring clean, wet dishes to the drying rack. Half a glance to show his wrinkled grey eyes, Sanji's face has paled once more. Positively _sallow_. “I take it, you are not on the side of those who've gotten wind of this... prize?”

 

Zeff's reached a thick arm forward to crack the window over his kitchen sink. Encouraging the cloud of smoke that's gathered above the table to drift lazily outside. The sun just breaching the horizon. A sharp orange blade that breaks as it meets buildings and cars. Everything before each object made starkly black.

 

 

~~~~~^~~~~~~~~~~^^~~~~~~~^~~~~~~~~~~~~^^~~~~~~~^^^~~~~~~~~^~^~~~~~~~~

 

“Luffy!” Ace has run almost to the end of the path on that side of the farm. Three huge oval growing fields, with a thin belt of trees separating them with a path cut on the south side... kinda... There are a few out-buildings, and a long road that eventually takes a person off the property. Maybe a mile from the house. “Oi~ Lu-ffy!” Grey eyes keep searching. Ace would be lying, if he said he weren't feeling frantic. His heart racing up into the hummingbird zone. The possibility also exists that Luffy's run off in another direction entirely, and he doesn't want to get found. Already it's been an hour.... more than enough time for Ace to begin to wonder just how long he's going to wait before resigning to trotting back to the house to tell Dadan he's lost his little brother.

 

“ _Luffy!_ ”

 

 

 

Some short distance away, Luffy's got his back to the base of a tree. Crouched in the tall grass with his his raven haired head pressing back against a hard trunk. Watching the leafs turning up in the branches. Different shades of green all moving like a bunch of fishes. A sky so brilliantly blue behind that their colors and outlines are almost too rich to look at. Listening to his older brother calling for him. Tears run down his face, for _wanting so much_ both to tell, and to not tell. Wishing he could just run away, but then he'd be all alone... “...Mina-.”

 

 

~~~~~^~~~~~~~~~~^^~~~~~~~^~~~~~~~~~~~~^^~~~~~~~^^^~~~~~~~~^~^~~~~~~~~

 

“Oh! Oh, my. Hello...” The last time she'd seen this young man, he had almost died. On that ordinary day, some three years ago when Nami's orange hatchback had come skidding across the front lawn. Ramming into the side garage, before coming to a stop. Running to her mother, screaming. Her arms covered in blood.

“Bell-mère-...” Zoro can't look at the woman who'd taken him into her home. Who'd asked absolutely no questions, as she'd worked tirelessly. Over a solid six hours. The former Marine, from what he learned later. Mutely sewing the young man back together after he'd been blown apart. It makes the multitudes of shiny round scars sprayed from left shoulder to right hip ache. Just being back in this place again. Empowering, yet many levels of uncomfortable. Dully reminding the one eyed man, that he could have died here.... but did not. “I-is Nami h-”

“Zoro.” Orange stained fingers rest quietly on her mother's shoulder. Stepping up beside her.

Able to look at _her_ , and he does. “We need to talk.” Curt, and gruff. Nojiko's appeared in the doorway. He's never felt like such an unwelcome outsider. “There's news.”

Nokijo's filling her lungs, as is her little sister, but it's their mother who speaks before either of them. “Please come inside.” Stepping away from the door. Her surprise in seeing him only trumped by who's not with him. “Feel free to stay as long as you like.” Waving a hand as she's pulled down half a dozen bottles of orange malt, and uncorked one of them. Taking it by the neck, she's swallowed down a long drink. Setting the glass bottom on the counter to cross her arms.

Nami's expression of uncertainty doesn't make Zoro want to come inside any more than he already didn't want to. “I'd – I'd rather speak with Nami alone.” He's going to shrivel under her wicked glare.

“Please come in, Roronoa Zoro.”

 

Not needing being told a third time, the green haired man's into the house and left no option but to sit stiffly at the table. Nami joining them, just as rigid in her movements. Her whole face, neck and shoulders, all red like she had a fever.

 

_Thunk!_

 

Orange malted whiskey sloshes inside the glass decanter. The woman of the house, Bell-mère, setting four glasses out in front of them all. “I have been very patient, Nami.” She's told her youngest daughter. Nojiko sidling into the seat beside her mother, who is pouring them all drinks. “But even I know there's something going on.” Dark eyes flick towards their guest. The woman's violet hair pulled back in a ponytail high on her head, sides shaved up above her ears. She settles both shoulders back into her chair. Picking up a glass. “So why don't you tell us also, this news you have?”

 

 

~~~~~~~Flashback~~~~~~~~

 

“I'm going to go with them!”

“If you leave this house, don't think you can just come back whenever you want!”

“You can't keep me here!”

“I've bailed you out of Marine Holdings too many times, Nami! I won't do it again!”

“Then don't! I don't need you!!”

 

It had been the last thing Nami'd said to her foster mother. Really Bell-mère is the only mother she ever remembers having. Nojiko feels like her real sister. They have always been her family. She had left them to follow him. The man who would be King.

 

~~~~~~End of Flashback~~~~~~~

 

 

“That's the plan, for now.”

Nami's halfway drunk her whiskey, swirling orange dregs in the bottom of her cup. “It's a good plan.” She's mused quietly. Chin in her palm as she's pinched her eyes shut hard.

“You don't seem shocked that Luffy never made it to Shanks?”

“I saw him. Him and a couple beefcakes driving one of _your_ cars.” Nami's red hair shines in the light that bleeds in from outside. Making her silky skin glitter, as if she were studded with veins of crystal. “But I kept my mouth shut. It's what's necessary right now, Ne? Still is?” Until the Reverie comes and goes. Only then, will safe passage open. Only then, will they regroup. To make a run on true unparalleled greatness.

“These Lots?” Bell-mère's asked, refilling glasses. “You traced them to His grandfather, who is an acting Vice Admiral?”

“That's right.” Zoro's three gold earrings sway as he moves.

“And whoever gave you this, you're certain they weren't Marine?”

“I'd bet all your daughter's money on it.” Smirking for Nami glowering at him.

 

Moles. The woman's retired from the Marines years ago, to raise the two children she'd found orphaned on an island on another ocean. But Moles were Moles, and each one she's ever found sticks out in her memory as if it were a bleeding thorn. People who sneak into places. They take... _things_. Things people didn't even believe were important, until they were gone. From live saving medicines to sexual secrets, Moles can and do topple lives on every field. Their allegiances to no one, and not always does money buy loyalty.

 

“I just thought you should know.” Zoro's spoken into his glass. It's his seventh or eighth, but it hardly appears he's had one drop. Single green eye clear, and steady. He's fixed her with it. “So if you hear anything just... just keep out of it. You're safest that way.”

“Don't you dare try and make it sound like my safety's what's important here, Zoro!”

“This Truce...” Bell-mère's peeling the wax off the head of another bottle. “It's more or less given your opposition time to arrange all their pieces. Knowing you have been forcibly estranged from one another.”

Nami grits her teeth, because her mother is very right. Their agreeing to it at all had been a mistake. But it hadn't been their choice to make. It was Luffy's.

“What will you do?” It's the first thing Nojiko's said since they'd all sat down together. Pale lips pursed as she's drinking orange liquor beside her mother. Her tanned skin decorated by sweeps of blue tattoos. Leaning both elbows on the table in front of her, asking Zoro, “When you leave here, and go back to him?”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading! Reviews and Stuff???


	28. The Old, the New, the Soul King

Sabo's grinning. Ear to pink-scarred ear. An oil-filthy rag in his hands, and taking a few steps back from the old beat up tractor. The old _running_ beat up tractor. “Ha!! Ha- _HA_!” Stamping one booted foot on the earth, the blonde's hollered his triumph.

“Eh? Aww! You got it to turn over after all?” Leaning a shoulder on the wall, Dogra can't keep the professional admiration from his teasing. “I thought for certain we'd be hauling by cart-and-horse this year!”

The ancient engine purrs like a massive hoary kitten. “Can't do that!” Sabo's said loudly, over all the noise. “All the carts have bad wheels!” Up and turning the key to power down the great rusted beast, the last vibrations soaking into paint peeling barn walls.

“Nah-haha-” Dogra chuckles in his stubby nose. “I suppose you're right.”

 

Wiping grease from his arms, the blonde's stood himself in the open barn entry. Encouraging his pale skin to lightly tan under late afternoon sun falling over sweaty shoulders. Stripped down to a tank top, because there's no point ripping _all_ his clothes crawling in and out of the filthy engine compartment... _and_ it's the hottest part of summer! He's slapped at a great big beetle that'd hunkered down on his bicep and bitten him. Cursing, as he's rubbed a red welt.

“Well, well... Will you look who it is?” Dogra's bleached turban doesn't reach above the younger man's navel, but that only gives him full visual confirmation of Sabo's half step that damn near trips him over. The bladed hood of Zoro's blood red Kitetsu coming within inches of him. Tires crunching in the gravel on his way to parking the vehicle around the back. An arranged parking spot. “Magra'll be so pleased he won't have to keep relying on those impy bozos from Long-Long in handling his precious horses.”

Thrown the soiled rag into a corner, Sabo reaches for his blue collar-shirt. Draped over the handle of a rake in one corner, earlier. Getting it on. Trying to remember how long Zoro's been gone from the farm. A week? Two...? … damn, he isn't sure... That's a side effect of being out so far on the Fringe. Clocks, and time. They only matter when you're feeding your belly. The sun is more important than cables or news casts.

 

“Sabo!” Ace's come tearing into the barn, glanced immediately at Dogra and gone quiet. Chewing his lower lip. “Sabo,” More quietly, and he's pulled the other into the farthest corner.

Under normal circumstances, being pulled away by his lover would mean some sweet touching, and soft whispered nothings. But there's nothing like that in Ace's expression. His jaw quivering. He looks on the verge of tears. “What's wrong?” Because something is clearly wrong. Ace's cheeks are all red, so hoarse he can hardly speak.

“I- I..” Tears streak down his face. Sabo brushing his thumbs through the rivers that appear over Ace's freckles. “I lost Luffy. This morning. I've been looking for him _all day_ , but I can't find him. I can't find him anywhere, Sabo...” Trying to keep from hyperventilating, Ace forces deep breathes down into his lungs. Filling them up until it begins to hurt.

 

“Eh, Luffy. You look pretty hungry.” The little man in his white turban spits into the dust beside the barn. Ace angling his head to one side. Able to see Dogra walk right up to his little brother. Luffy in his long sleeved red shirt, brown cargoes, and boots. He doesn't look into the barn where his two brother's are huddled together near the back. Following the shorter man inside the house for supper.

 

Wild grey eyes get a little wider, before Ace's sighed heavily out. Sabo clutching to his lover's body as the other man's abruptly relaxed against him. “I really thought he'd run away or something...-” Burying his nose into his fiancé's neck. His blonde smells like black oil, and sweat. Content as Ace is, to keep holding onto Sabo's firm shoulders and breathe him in forever. He's distracted by Zoro's green hair crossing right in front of him. The blacksmith come out from behind the barn. Not stopping to speak to anyone, even as they're calling out to him. Up the steps and pushed his way into Dadan's house.

 

~~~~~~~^~~~~~~~~~~^^~~~~~~~~~^~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^^^~~~~~~~~~~~^~~~~~~~~~^~~

 

“Four on High, yoi.” Marco grins with all his teeth, lying down his cards.

“Shouldn't you be disqualified?!” Haruta's shrieked. Folding her own hand of cards over onto the table. “You've already gone once!”

“You, _and Thatch_.” McGuy's grumbled. Also folding. This was the last qualifying game in a great house championship. The winner of this round, between Marco, Thatch, McGuy, Haruta, and Izou. Gets to drive out to the Fringe to pick up Ace. Everyone had participated. Everyone. And _this_ was just the game to see who'll drive.

 

 

“Alright, Marco's won!” Cheers follow his son's announcement. The Master lifting a bottle from the table. Blue sake going down his throat. “Next round! This one's to plan the Bridal Shower!”

“Gurarararra ~” The sake is sweet today. In Moby Manor. Old Man Whitebeard sitting on his sturdy chair in his sturdy house. His many children around him. Content to watch them fawn over Ace, the brother they hadn't seen for years and years... finally coming for a planned stay. A few days and nights, when they can be a family under the same roof. “Marco.” For those who have family, they sometimes wish they could do without them. “The farm, where Ace has grown up,” To those who do not have family, dreaming of having one... is often all-consuming. “What do you make of it?”

Standing at his father's elbow, Marco's chuckling at the shows of rampant cheating. A few light brawls breaking out. He's stood up a little straighter, contemplating the older man's question. “Make of it, yoi... well, it's...” Trying to find a word for the place. “...isolated.”

The Master's put his sake bottle down on the table. “...” A wood hallow sigh escaping out of his chest.

“Something worrying you, Pops?” Which in turn worries his son. A lot.

“Fourteen years ago, tomorrow,” Coal black eyes close. “Ace was nearly killed on Angel Beach.”

Being reminded of the date twists the other man's heart. Marco taking a deep breath. Like he's been punched in the guts. “We'll look after him, yoi.” Draining the rest of his beer, and hucked the bottle into the bin beside open kitchen doors. He can hear his own heart thumping in his neck. Just as it had that day as Marco bled freely from his lips. Cheeks bruised and split. His stomach had been purple and tender for a month, after the beaten they'd given him. Spitting blood into their faces until his body had simply given out. The blonde man never saw Ace get strung up. Not like his Pops had...

“Though it must be said. Ace came to visit us. Came all the way here only a few weeks ago, without any incident.” Newgate's lifted the blue bottle of sake from the table once again. Warm liquid sloshing inside. “Perhaps the world has forgiven Roger...”

 

 _Forgiven?_ Marco's considered, both arms hugged up as he's gripped his shoulders. After the movie had been made, posters of Roger's face began to disappear from the newstands. Books and Autobiographies about the case had all been written. Nobody wanted to talk about the great Trial that never _really_ happened anyway. There was never a mention about the woman who carried the son of the devil, only that there had been a son. The Marines, for all their causing of this mess, made up for it by persecuting every last person who had attacked Ace and the Whitebeard family members to the highest extend of their authority. Continuing to hand out strict punishments and heavy fines, for crimes related to anything the Pirate King had been a part of.

 

“Guarararara~” Gurgling into his sake, his Pops' laughter pecks at Marco. Bringing him back to the present.

 

“Round one goes to Izou! Next up...!”

 

“Guararararara~”

“What's so funny, yoi?” Realizing his shoulders had tightened like elbow springs, Marco relaxes them. His middle back aching.

“Guararara~” Not that the scene before them wasn't downright hilarious. Jozu getting up onto the platform with the visor on over his eyes. He can't use a Den-den on a clear day. He's getting his feet tangled up, and oh – there he goes falling on his ass. But of course everybody has to at least _try_. “I was only thinking that... guara~” Wiping a tear from his cheek, Newgate rests his chin into one open palm. Elbow supported on the arm of his throne for watching affectionatly. His sons and daughters in the midst of life. “...If it's true, and world has forgiven Roger. They will be just in time.”

“Eh, yoi? In time for what?”

“Gurarara~ To welcome their new King.”

 

~~~~~~~^~~~~~~~~~~^^~~~~~~~~~^~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^^^~~~~~~~~~~~^~~~~~~~~~^~~

 

“Yoooohooooooo! Pa~ra~~dise~!”

“Keep it down! You're going to cause a scene?!”

 

“ _AAAHH! It's The SOUL KING!!!!_ ”

 

Jimbe's faltered, stepping sideways to avoid being bowled over by a gaggle of screaming women. Screaming. Not cheering, or twittering. Screaming. For the Soul King. He's never understood how Brook's managed to be comfortable being an object center of attention. At the drop of a hat. Outside hotels, shopping for food, eating in restaurants. Never once has he heard Brook refuse to play, once someone's asked him to. Today wasn't any different. Though the stout man's noticed he's only played one short tune for his audience of... looks like fifty?... yea fifty... before he's elbowed his way out. Hailing his nakama so they can get moving.

 

Usopp will be waiting for them.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! Reviews and stuffs~~


	29. Fists

He's a massive man. Sitting at the head of a enormous Adamwood table. This restaurant caters specifically to the _Beast Party_ , as they are referred to hushed whispers by kitchen staff. Refusing to allow any other guest into the establishment while they dine. There is less bloodshed that way.

 

“You delivered our little message?” Sharp, jagged teeth tear dark meat from bone.

“Je hahaha! Sure did, Boss.” He's got black curly hair on his head. Hanging in dirty great locks across both shoulders. Black curling beard greasy on his chin. “Gave the envelope over to Lover Boy, just like ye' said to.” Drinking and smoking, with a few women in fishnet stockings on his lap. Marshal D Teach puffs on a cigar. “He's a mean looking one, that Roronoa Zoro.”

“Ha! He's a nobody.” Long legs cross on the table beside an empty plate. Pointy shoes on rather large feet, and pink feather boa fluffed up about the blonde's man's sharp features.

“A nobody, eh?” They call him Blackbeard. Earning a bit of a name for himself, reticently. A few heavy hitters joining his little group of freelance goons. “I heard he put Pica down. Hard. Little over a year ago. One of your boys, isn't he?”

“Is this true, Donquixote Doflamingo?” Kaido moves rather slowly, even for a half giant. His eyes preceding him in actions. His exhalation around the forming of his words like a great wind coming out from a hole in the earth.

“ _Che'..._ ” Feet coming down off the table. Rings glinting off the tall man's fingers as he's gripped both knees.

“Oh, it's true.” The throaty guffaw lets out a thick cloud of yellow smoke. Grinning. Half his yellow teeth missing. “Got beat himself, no long after that. Didn't he tell you? He must have cost you half your empire? Je-hahahaha!”

 

Any warier of a man would not be laughing. Would not have said so much. Because a wary man would have seen those tiny red eyes stretch open. Lock.... and then focus down. Muscular arm, wrist, and fisted hand coming suddenly to life. The blow that's knocked the bearded man clean over the back of his chair. His whores run away just in time to be spared injury. Teach tumbles, his head cracking hard on the floor before he's slammed into a wall. Damaging plaster, and leaving an indentation of his round body. Blood trickles sickly from between his teeth.

 

~~~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~**~~~~~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~~~~~**~~~~~*~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

“Yes.... Of course.... I understand.... Mmm... I'm not sure. Once I get back to the main island I'll contact you and Franky to let you know.” Tony Tony Chopper is sixteen years old. A whole lot taller than he'd been three years ago, at the age of thirteen. When they all had first met. Filled out in his arms, and chest. The brown skinned, brown haired teen worrying his bottom lip between his teeth.

“Is there something wrong, Chopper?” Doctor Hiluluk has his feet up on the table in front of him. Reading from a thick medical journal. A cup of coffee steaming at his elbow. Gentle, as he's addressed the boy setting down the Den-den receiver he'd been holding. Covering his face in his hands.

“I've... um...” Chopper is not related by blood to the man in the room with him. Or the woman who also shares this living space. An outpost funded by generous grants doing medical research in the remote Torino Islands. But they are his family. “I have to go.” Breathing shallow as he's got up and crossing the landing for his room. Pulling out clothes and books. Stuffing everything into a blue knapsack with a white cross stitched into the fabric. He knows the older man's followed him. The shadow outlining his bushing white hair on the floor beside him.

“The Thief Doctor will be sorry to lose her pack-horse.” Hiluluk's chortled. Watching Chopper gathering his things. “When will you be back?”

“I don't know.” And he doesn't. Dark eyes turned away. Itching with warm tears. He's wiped them away on his shirtsleeve. Standing up with his bag. “I'll call when I can.”

“I know you will.” Smiles the old Doctor. Chopper's guide, and mentor. He's closed his old eyes, allowing the younger to walk passed him. “Take care of yourself.”

 

The door into the facility opens and closes. Leaving not a peep to be heard from outside. Dr. Hiluluk drinking his coffee. Letting the ringing in his ears distract him from the everyday hum of computers, and bubble of chemicals in test tubes.

 

~~~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~**~~~~~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~~~~~**~~~~~*~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

Luffy's eyes track the progress of the beautiful red Kitesu making it's way up the gravel driveway, and disappear behind the barn. Stood in a numb stupor, with his mouth half open. _Zoro's back_. A flutter in his chest that feels like it will break him apart. That it might leave another scar on him, just like the first. Just a little higher. Over his heart. Dogra notices him standing in the driveway, though. And the young man's found himself steered inside for supper before he can talk to the blacksmith. Given a huge plate of sweet spaghetti, and gone into a corner to wolf it down. He is sensitive to the the procession. A gathering electrical storm, of sorts. Snapping the air. Luffy can almost see it. A crackle that's sizzled white hot, for the man who's pushed open the farmhouse door and come inside.

 

“So, you've come back again.”

“That's right.”

“Good, you can get to work with that brown stallion. Magra wants him _stepping_ in one week.” The curly haired woman's shifted a line of juicy steaks onto a huge plate. Turning squash and pepper halves on another grill. Cigarette resting on Dadan's full lower lip.

“Fine.” Not honestly caring about what he's agreeing to, Zoro's one green eye's become fixed in one corner of the room. On Luffy hunched back. Sitting with his shoulders pulled over his food. The green haired man able to tell immediately that the younger's not currently eating.

“Ehh? Are you back?” Disgust is part of Ace's voice now, whenever Zoro's near enough to hear it. Not that he's not got a right to hate him. They did break up messily. Not that he gives a shit.

“ 's right, _Freckles_.” Turned, and shoved Ace's shoulder. Knocking him back into Sabo's chest. “Got a problem with that?” Zoro's left arm curls. He'd get a lot of satisfaction slugging Ace right about now.

“Take it _outside_ if you're going to fight! You hear me! Ace! Zoro! - _Outside_!!” The whole house gets up to follow them. Piling up on the porch in the weak light of a dying day. Luffy squashed between a few pairs of shoulders. Listening to bets being placed, wads of beli notes passing under his nose from hand to hand.

 

 

“You better be up for this.” Zoro's growled. Flexing his shoulders with his boots kicking up dust. “If you puss-out on me in five minutes it's gonna be a real let down.”

“What kinda fight you think this is gonna be, cyclops?” Ace's stripped off his t-shirt. Tightening his belt.

 

Sabo stood nearby, next to the beam that holds the roof up in that spot. Arms crossed over his chest, and he still has engine grease smeared across one cheek. Sizing up his lover, and the burly body that will be his opponent.... Sighing out of his chest, Sabo combs all his fingers through wavy blonde hair. “Ahh... he's gonna get his ass kicked...”

“Eh? Right-right? See- you _do_ get it. Wanna make a bet? We've got great odds on Zoro finishing Ace off in five minutes?” Yosaku, waggling his eyebrows. Leger and pen in his hands, intruding into the other man's space by leaning over the porch rail.

 

Sabo's put two hundred beli on Zoro to win in the first seven minutes.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading!! Reviews are awesome!!


	30. See?

The sun's setting quietly over the farm. Flocks of birds black against pale vapors that will turn into fog later. There is always fog on the farm. Thick as chowder in winter. Lighter, more like wisps of translucent silk in summer. It's good air they have, on the Dadan farm.

 

“Bawh! Ahahaha-!”

“Oh my gawwd, _man_?!”

“Hahaha!”

 

Good air for a good ol' fight. Too bad this one's barely lasted half a second... Ace being... down. On the first punch. Down, and out. His opponent could not be more disappointed.

 

“What the fuck, Ace _?_!” Zoro's rolled the other man over onto his back with his foot. Flexing fingers and wrists. He really feels like a idiot, psyching himself out _for this_?? A thick growl out of his chest, Zoro kicks at the ground. Dust and gravel.

 

“Shishishi-shi!” Like it's the only sound for a million miles in every direction. The green haired man focusing on the source of it. That laughter. There's no one in the world sounds quite like his nakama. “Shi-shi! Zoro didn't even get to fight?”

 

Sabo's picked his fiancé up off the ground. Drug him to the steps to hang onto him, until he comes too. His little brother walking right beside them. Cracking his knuckles.

“He still wanna fight?” Two thick _pops,_ that are tendons in Luffy's neck. Grinning.

 

It gets every damn person to shut up again, real quick. Dadan dragging heavy on a fresh cigarette. It then occurs to her, that Luffy's never once gotten into a fight on the farm. All the rest of them had... she's sure of it. All of them. In fact, she's been expecting this one for a while. Ace had been so broken up inside after Zoro had dumped him. Sabo would sit up with him at night for hours. He was the kind of kid that needed a good fight to be a good _fight_. Violence, in place of emotions he's either never developed, or been hereditarally denied. Zoro hadn't allowed a fight to happen. Vanishing for three whole years. Back only a few unpredictable days, and each time managing to avoid seeing his ex-boyfriend. Having only returned this last season. Their fight tonight didn't amount to much. Even though everybody knew Zoro was going to win. _But Luffy_? Curly Dadan takes another long drag, letting wild leaf burn a scoring line down the back of her throat. Sweet ash on her lips as she's licked them. Watching the two new combatants circle once around one another. A _sizing up_. They look right at each other, and she's shocked for such cutting recognition between them.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*~*~**~~~~~~~~~~**~~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~~

 

Zoro's ears ring... endlessly. His head having been rung hard by the declaration crowed from Luffy's lips. Until the wind blows across the fields, and gets caught up in little nooks and grooves of the barn. Whistling. The sun sinking lower in the sky, and everything turns to gold. _What are you doing, Luffy?_ One foot in front of the other, Zoro paces in a wide arch. Waiting. Waiting for the younger to strike first, as he knows he will. Luffy's more hungry for a fight, isn't he? A sad grin pulls the blacksmith's thin lip up his face. The scar striped vertically over his left eye, starkly outlined.

“Ahh!” Never quiet about attacking. Luffy. His battle cry lit up like the crimson sunset. Zoro anticipates the lunge the other makes. Camping a hand down hard on the shorter man's left wrist. Turning his body, the older overbalances his opponent. Holding one arm tightly, and Luffy's back up against Zoro's belly. Extending that same arm out wide. “Ah? A-e _eei~i~_!”

“ _Che'~_ ” There's absolutely no hilarity in Zoro. Chin resting on the crook of Luffy's neck and shoulder. Wrenching the other's shoulder, to gain a sharp intake a breath from their onlookers. But the stretch seems to have very little effect on the young dark haired man. Luffy more interested in getting that arm free than fear of it being further damaged.

“Le'ggo!”

“No.” Zoro's powerfully built body has been responsible for some of the most grizzly beatings on this farm. Sabo can remember the very first summer he met Zoro. They were both about nine. Zoro sitting all alone on a rock with a pile of guns in a great mound beside him. That rock turned out to be a gravestone. It isn't there anymore.

“ _Hhrrrr-r-r-rrrr_!” Luffy strains to pull his arm free. Not a fraction of an inch gained, when he's felt something inside his arm sort of... _snap_.

Something the other man notices, because it makes a ripple all up and down Luffy's arm. Green eye watching the progression, as the younger's made aware of whatever wrongness has just occurred. Zoro takes one or two breathes, quietly pivoting. Wrapping both arms securely around the slightly smaller man. Luffy grasping his left forearm with his right hand. “See?” Luffy bites into his lip, and Zoro can feel the difference between blood and tears that trickle wetly down his neck. Hot, erratic breathes against his chest.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*~*~**~~~~~~~~~~**~~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~~

 

“ _What's goin' on?_ ”

“ _Hey, move! I can't see!_ ”

“ _They're just standing there._ ”

“ _What? so they're not gonna fight?_ ”

 

Ace admits he doesn't remember the sun going down. “Huuh-” Or using some beautiful blonde with blue eyes as his pillow. “Hey, babe~”

“Since when do you call me babe?”

“I can call you bae?”

“Shut up, you probably have a concussion.”

“Huh?”

“You _lost_ , Ace. The fight... With Zoro?”

“Huh...? I –oh-Oh! Damn it! I _lost_?!” Ace sits up probably faster than he should. His grey eyes spin a few times, but he pushes away the need to fall straight over. “When-!” He's easily the only person talking with any volume. Most everyone else mutters. Conscientious whispering. The majority making their way back inside.

“He's been that way a little while.” Sabo's handed his lover a tall glass of water. Keeping his voice down low, as he's nodded pointedly to make the other drink it. “But seriously, one punch?”

Ace gulps the water, wiping his mouth. “What?”

“One punch, Ace. You-” He can't keep from chuckling. Especially now it's confirmed there's been no lasting head injury. “Y-you haha- You got your ass handed to you... no.. No. You handed it to Zoro.”

“What?!”

“Is true.” Dogra's standing just over Sabo's shoulder. Grinning at him. “Official ruling made it three seconds.”

Ace gapes at the pale little man. “Three seconds?”

 

 

Sabo lets Ace's failure pile down on him. Talking to himself, and sitting cross-legged on the steps. His attention drawn instead, to Luffy. He still doesn't know what is the relationship between his little brother and Zoro. He guesses that they are _involved_... even if they aren't openly together right now? Unsure why that is... why it would be an issue for either of them.

 

“Sabo.” Dadan's flicked the butt of her spent cigarette over the wooden porch rail. “Why don't you take Ace inside.” He's blinked up at her. “Don't worry about Luffy,” The woman continues. “I'll see he goes up to bed.” She sees him nod. Gently encouraging Ace to stand up and walk. They get inside, and there is still no change to those sharp gasps coming out of Luffy. Zoro's not letting him go, either. Strong arms, holding on.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading!! Reviews?


	31. Big or Small

~~~~~~~~ _Flashback~~~_

 

“Hit me.” Roronoa Zoro is the Winner of that year's illustrious Davy Back Race. Come all the way out to Twin Capes, and set a land speed record between the two glaring lighthouses.

“Be sure and pace yourself.” Blueno's sorry for the guy's luck. Pouring another shot of hot whiskey into his glass, and not charging him for it. All too familiar with Zoro's drinking habits over the years, as he's raced at the Cape more than a dozen times. Usually it's a loss that steers the green haired blacksmith to drape himself over one of his bar stools to binge. Putting away a couple of cheap bottles, staggering away to sleep it off in the back seat of his race car. Today, however...

“I'll thank you for the advice...” Any prize beli Zoro had won today went straight towards repairs to his vehicle. “Even if I'm not goin'ta take it.” The White Wado Ichimonji having been _smashed into!!_ as a result of a wreck he'd had nothing to do with; occurring a few seconds after he'd gotten out of the driver's seat. He grinds his teeth. Shaking his head to make three gold piercings rattle under one ear. So much for _winning_. There's enough to fix his car, drink himself close to comatose, and fuel to get home. Zoro's sighing, more of a low growl while lifting his elbow. Warm alcohol burning the back of his throat before pooling in his belly. He also has his angry boyfriend to consider, and the thought just makes him want to drink more. Ace currently being mad at him has been weighing on him every second since he'd left. Cold in the pit of his stomach, not to mention made close to rabid with base irritability.

 

“Whooaoo!!” An exclamation, followed by laughter. The wild, excited kind a person might expect out of a little kid. He was _like_ a little kid. Not likely over the age of sixteen. Perching himself up onto the stool beside Zoro. He's referring to the replay of that afternoon's race, being broadcast on a huge screen behind the bar. The older also watching himself, while the reporters recount finer details of moments that have already happened. How the _renowned_ Roronoa Zoro had beaten the pack, and pulled ahead. A white streak at blazing speed, almost like a ghost that sped along the flats. A straightaway that ended at the inlet of two tall lighthouses.

Wan green eyes watch, and if it wasn't in slow motion already, Zoro's anguished brain made it so. How he'd come to the end of the track. Climbed out of his vehicle in what had been a high of victory elation. Two... _maybe_ two steps from Wado, a half dozen other cars coming fast up the ramp. One catching one, and then they've flipped. Buckling their formation. Eustass' burgundy Rocket lifted. Rolling end over end. Propelled high into the air before spearing downward to effectively cut the Wado in half.

“Huh-?! _What...-_? No _way??_!” The kid's leaning with his arms on the bar. Wreckage and flame taking up the majority of the screen. Black smoke billowing out of a cracked engine block. The announcer calm in his explanation that no one was seriously hurt in the accident, and the cast switches to some other story. The younger sitting back on the stool, and Zoro's a little shocked to see him wipe tears from his eyes. “That's just _not_ right.” Whispered so quietly the green haired man's not sure if he's even heard correctly.

“Can I get you something?” Dark hair gelled into two high peeks, like horns on top of his head. Blueno wiping out glasses with a white rag.

“Eh? Ah! Oh, yea-! _Meat_!” The barman's raised an eyebrow, disappearing through a door into the kitchen to wrangle up something to fill the teen's vague order.

 

~~~~~~~~ _not a Flashback_ ~~~

 

“I hate it. I hate it... Zoro-...”

“I know.”

“...” Luffy's wriggles to get free, but the other man hangs onto him. Trapped in the circle of Zoro's arms. He _can't_ break free. Luffy _knows_ that. The younger continuing to thrash fruitlessly until he's spent what little energy he had left to him. Resting his head quietly down on the other man's shoulder. He'd been quiet, while Luffy fitted and kicked at him. So what he'll have bruises tomorrow. “Don't go away again, okay?”

 _Is that why you wanted to fight?_ Zoro smiles. Putting his chin down on top of Luffy's messy black hair. “Might need to.”

“Why?”

“Can't say.”

“Yea?”

“...enemies.” Zoro's conscious of the chill that runs the line of Luffy's spine. Holding tightly to the older's shirt.

“Ne...is everybody...?”

“Safe.” How Luffy relaxes exponentially. In time to ramp himself still higher.

“I wanna go.”

“There isn't anywhere to _go_.”

“Zoro-!” Where the younger had come up with another round of adrenaline is anybody's guess. It doesn't last. This time it almost has Luffy too weak to stand. Hung gasping in the green haired man's arms.

 

 

“Zoro. Luffy.” Dadan's come down the porch steps. It's just the three of them left out here. She'd waited up near the humming lights. Not interested in what quite things they said between one another. “A word.” Not that she's not got questions.

 

After she's led both boys though the dining room. A few scattered groups still sitting up to gossip look up at them. Continuing to gossip as the door's shut them out. There's a table in Dadan's Kitchen. Two more ovens, and a row of burners. Sink, and storage. An old wood stove sat unused. Acting as a shelf, as it had been upgraded years ago. The curly haired woman directing her guests to a couple of chairs, as she's sat down herself. Lighting a cigarette, and waiting imperiously for them to begin.

“It's a secret!”

 _Good ol' Luffy_. Zoro's barked out a laugh. Covering his mouth as he's continued to snicker.

“A _secret_ , eh?” Dadan drags on her cigarette, blowing gold smoke up into a vent near the ceiling.

“Right.” He appears starkly determined to keep that as his answer.

“In my line of work, secrets get bought and sold. Just like souls.” Curly Dadan flicks ash into a tray on the table. “Would your secret be for sale?”

“Sale?”

Zoro's silent. Crossed his bronzed arms over his chest. Content to watch Luffy deal with Dadan, half curious see if he gets far. Not many did. Not that he wanted to try.

“I'll trade you something you want, and in turn you tell me a piece of your secret. Not all of it. But one chunk. How 'about it?”

“Something I want?” Luffy's clarified. He sounds weird saying stuff like that. Even if he's always asking for and doing what he wants, regardless of weather he should. Thinking about something significant becomes daunting. Blowing up his cheeks a couple of times, before glancing at Zoro. She's seen him look away again, double sharp. “Nothing I want.”

“Oh? You see to want Greeny here pretty bad.” Dadan's smirked to get a scowl out of the stoic blacksmith. Even if he has yet to say anything. “You two seem to have lots to talk about,” Dadan's very serious. Emerald green eyes glittering as she's tipped her head. White roll of tobacco between two thick fingers. “I'm not asking for your whole secret.” Speaking to Luffy only, because Zoro's now refusing to look back at her.

Something Monkey D Luffy was having no problem doing. Dadan sensing a strong back pressure build and build inside the room. All of that young man's prowess, barely contained. “... it's a... big secret.”

“Make it small, and tell me that.”

Zoro feels the guy next to him blink big brown eyes. Luffy folding both knees up onto his chair, to think hard about that statement. Long enough he's starting to nod off, when Zoro's hears the other speak.

“ _Don't see them._ ” Luffy's twisting his hands in his lap. Pulling at his fingers, and staring down at them. “ _Don't talk to them. Don't even think about them._ ” Tears break off dark eyelashes. Warm trickles down Luffy's face. That's when Zoro's risen off his chair. Moved to put his arms around the other's tembling shoulders. Luffy gasping against t-shirt material over a hard abdominal wall.

“Who said all that?” Dadan asks. Gentle, but it's still a question she expects an answer to.

Luffy takes a rattling breath in. Clinging to Zoro's belt loops. “It's'a Truce.”

 _Truce?_ “Truce with _whom_?”

  
“With the Taishō.” Zoro answers this time. Not consenting to look at Curly Dadan. Calloused hands combing through messy black hair.

“Marine Admirals?”

“There are more of 'em than you'd think.” Continuing, Zoro keeps his jade green eye on the clock ticking over one of the woman's stoves. “If we break their rules, they'll execute our families.”

She hides her shock, and rather well if she does say so herself. “You are seeing each other right now. Doesn't that put you in breach of that contract?”

A sneer pulls at Zoro's face. The scar that extends from his closed left eyelid, dipping down over half his cheek. Gross, and white. He seems to think very hard about what he says next, to the Bandit who lives out here on the Fringe. “I can't answer that.” When the blacksmith had come home, he'd signed on for a season of hard labor at the neighboring farm... as something to do to keep him busy. Finding Luffy there, he half dreaded going back to find Kuina hurt or killed. Although, the other half admittedly would like to see someone try. The way she trains and trains herself, all day and night... His half sister. “They seem not to care if we make contact with one another, so long as we stay in our places and don't cause a scene.”

Dadan snubs the butt of her spent cigarette into the tray. Lacing her fingers together. “Alright.”

He looks back at her then. Zoro's hands held protectively over the back of Luffy's shoulders. “Alright?”

“It's getting late. I've got a house to mind.” She's gotten up from the table. Moving to fill the deep kitchen sink with warm water. “Get yourselves fed, and go to sleep.” Neither of them move, as the woman's added soap to the warm water, and set up the drying rack for her pots and pans. “Is there something else?”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading! Reviews?


	32. Parlay in Paradise

They don't talk. Ace and Sabo. Taken rushed, no nonsense showers to get into their room as quickly as possible. The teasing had begun the moment they'd entered the dining room, and likely to continue for weeks, if not years... Ace's embarrassing defeat... but that wasn't what was making the two elder brothers so anxious.

“He's not back yet?” Ace checks closer into the mounds of blankets on Luffy's cot. Nope.

“Nobody's outside anymore.” Sabo had bent over the other's bed to check out their bedroom window. The barn light having been left on, illuminating a good portion of the yard between it and the house.

Someone knocks on their door, the blonde cracking his spine when he stands up too quickly. “Ace. Sabo.” It's Magra?

“What?” Ace asks through the door.

“Are you guys fucking?”

Sabo's face gets redder than the pink scar over his eye. “What do you want?!” His own hands around his back to dig them into the sore spot.

The tall man with his red mohawk sticking up off the top of his head. More people in the hallway, currently enjoying a good laugh after Magra's little dig at them. He closes the door behind him, straightening his expression. “First, Ace...” Like he's having a very hard time not outright laughing at him. “Congratulations are in order.”

Ace's nose wrinkles. “Huh?”

“Never once, has the House ruled in favor of a full refund.” He can't keep that grin off his bearded face. Handing Sabo two hundred beli notes. “We should -haha- carve you a... a plaque or something.” Now he is chucking. The bastard.

“Was there anything _else_ you wanted?” Ace sits down on his bed, making the old metal frame squawk like turkey getting flattened. Accepting Sabo's hand, and nuzzling into a warm wrist.

“Actually yes.” Magra's face schools properly, lowering his voice. “There's someone on the property, shouldn't be here. I got a set to do rounds in the morning, and at night. Though you two ought to know.”

“Someone?” Sabo's repeated. Sitting down next to Ace. “You got any guesses as to who?”

“Might have. Might not. Was about half a dozen tracks up by a broken patch o' fence-”

“What?!”

“It's already fixed.” Dark beaded eyes smile. Ace hates working on that fence. “That's it, go to bed.”

“We're waiting up for Luffy.” Sabo's informed offhand as the older man's turned to go. Yawning, and draping tired arms around his fiancé.

“Go to bed. Luffy's spending the night with Zoro.”

 

Blank, vacant stares graduate to quick-calculating gaping.... Wild waves of brash correlation breaking upon the pair of them... “ _WHAT?!_ ”

 

~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~**~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~***~~~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~~

 

“Eh? So you're _living_ in Paradise, now?” Jimbe's put his feet up. Admiring his nakama's downtown loft. Several isles standing on a platform along one wall, another platform opposite where the man's bed is. On the main level, squashy places to sit mixed with various piles of tools, or art supplies. Smattering of all sorts of _things_. Usopp having a knack of accumulating anything and everything.

“That's right.” The curly haired guy's offered beer, before sitting himself down in a chair opposite his nakama.

“It's a splendid location.” Brook admires, taking a drink from his cup. Black guitar case resting quietly beside the sofa. “And large enough a space for two.” Jimbe also wonders where Kaya is, but he wasn't going to say anything.

“I haven't made contact with Kaya yet.” Admits the olive skinned young man. Draining his beer and reaching for another bottle. “So. Luffy's not with Shanks. I knew that already, because I saw him right here in Paradise.”

“ _When_?” Both demand at once.

“About a week after the check on this place cleared.” The Storyteller's licked his lips. Holding the open bottle under his long nose. “He was right there. Standing in the front of the crowd, and I'm at the top of my voice. Getting ready to tell _his_ goddamn story... He was, all on his own.” Usopp's knuckles pale gripping the neck of the glass beer bottle. Lifting it to drain what was left. Stood up, and hucked it so hard against the wall there's little glass pieces glittering all around the recycling bin. “I didn't know what to think about that! I thought Luffy was... If he wasn't with Shanks... Was he somewhere on the streets of Paradise? all _alone._ Hiding. Making sure that since I saw him once, I wouldn't get a second chance.” When Robin had contacted the young man, he had sighed out such a sigh of relief. He'd begun to wander the city alleys, feverishly searching for his nakama. Imagining every black headed person strung out, or simply dead in the gutters was Luffy. It hadn't calmed him down any, being told information was _coming._ Even if he did understand why. Robin couldn't give vast details over a Den-den. They shouldn't even be contacting one another.

Usopp had been a nervous wreck following the call that had concluded in a matter of a few seconds. Disconnecting the line the next day, sending Robin a new contact number through more secure networks. Checking, and re-checking his hometown newspapers for incident. Making indirect communication with certain trustworthy friends to ensure the woman he loved was safe. She's his only family, outside those already involved in this.

Unfortunately both Brook and Jimbe were at a similar loss. Having been on the way to Paradise on a whim, when they'd been contacted by their dark nakama. “I propose we pay a visit to Franky and Robin, or perhaps they could be persuaded to come to us?”

Jimbe wonders about the thin man's suggestion. Brook sitting with one leg crossed over the other, and drinking coffee instead of beer.

 

“I'd not recommend that.” All three nakama turn. Immediately on alert for the voice of someone they'd not heard enter into the apartment _??_

“Coby.” Usopp's the first to recognize him. It's been a while. How the Marine had gotten into his apartment, currently driving him nuts. The front door still closed, and bolted. The windows... The Storyteller's reached for another beer. “How did you get in here?” Knocking a fresh cap off against his table with a huff, immediately draining half the bottle.

“It wasn't easy.”

“Come sit down, boy.” Jimbe grins. Over-large incisors obvious in a line of otherwise normal white teeth. One of the enemy is sure to know what's going on.

Brook shaking hands with the rosy haired Marine Officer who sits down with them. Even though he's on the opposite side of theirs, he's still one of Luffy's closest friends in the entire world. And so he's treated like family. “Come, and we'll have a secret meeting in the shadows of Paradise~” Spooky manner, as he's raised his coffee cup with one slender hand. Bright lights on in the apartment, and a sky full of blinding yellow sunshine. Most of it coming in through the flat's floor-to-ceiling windows.

 

Coby's accepts a beer, swallowing a mouthful of thick liquor. “Luffy went to Holding, the facility west of the city.” He's said. Hazel eyes tinged with red, because of the highlights in his hair. “I heard he was there a few days, and then there wasn't anything else.” _Nothing else_. Not even a whisper. Working in the offices, and on the streets. The reports simply stopped, and he's no correlating cases. So he can't very well outright _ask_. “Found out something interesting today, though. Couple o' things.” Drinking from the bottle again. “You know that _surveillance_ on you guys, supposed to be twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week bullshit on your phones and email and so forth-? Well, parts of it have been pulled back on _someone's_ high authority.”

“Someone?”

“A Vice Admiral, maybe?” Coby's chuckling to himself. “Although I can't take credit for that theory. It being Smoker's opinion.”

“What _theory_?” Usopp's in serious danger of snapping the glass neck of the beer, and driving glass all the way through his hand. Not even aware he's still holding the empty container. “Explain it.”

“You know Luffy's Grandfather.”

“Huh? Y-yea. Garp, or something...”

“Uh-huh-” Coby's grin gets a little bigger. “He happens to be the guy I've been sweating under. Breaking my back, and whipping me up since I joined.”

The long nosed young man blinks. Jimbe sitting back on the sofa, contemplative look into exposed rafters.

“My word...” Brook can only breath steadily.

“He's a Vice Admiral. Acting in service to the World Government. Monkey D Garp.”

 

A war hero. Usopp knew exactly who that guy was. That was Luffy's Grandfather?! That old grizzly-guy wearing bright blue short-sleeves, and grey scraggly dog-beard. The one who'd managed to out drink Zoro?! Nami lost a fortune in that bet! He drinks his beer. Usopp. Letting the churn of facts settle. Sediment in the bottom of a fish tank. Only half listening to the young Marine as he's explained his sources, and other things he guesses from illicit activities going on in or near the city of Paradise. Explaining that Luffy is safe, but also that he is unaware where that safe place is.

 

“You've all gotten ve~ry lucky, I'd say. You guys are always lucky! Haha-!” Coby's set down the now empty beer, and gotten to his feet. Fixing his white coat. Leaving by way of the front door, instead of whatever fashion in which he arrived. His warning clear. They've dodged a bullet, because nobody happened to be looking.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading!! Reviews are awesome!


	33. Just Stay Put

~~~~~~~~ _Flashback~~~_

 

Zoro lets his head get fuzzier and fuzzier. The line of Blueno's bar bending a little. But it's disbelief, raising more alcohol to his lips. For every drumstick and lamb roast that kid next to him puts into his mouth. Blueno periodically disappearing, returning with another platter or dish. The Cook's come out, after the first hour. To chitchat with his customer. Rolling up his sleeves, with a twinkle in his eye. After that it's been endless courses. The guy dropping random beli notes onto the counter every now and then. Asking if he's paying enough, as if he's not sure how much a beli's worth.

 

“A few more of these ones,” The bartender's extracted what Zoro can recognize as thousand beli notes from a crumpled wad if cash in the other's hands. “...and I'll consider you paid until we close in two hours. Fair?”

“I can eat as much as I want?” The guys grins. His teeth are so white.

“Ha-ha-ha!” It's unusual to see the barrel chested man laugh. Blueno often stood still as a statue. He's laughing now. Assuring his customer he'll leave this evening satisfied.

 

 

A few hours later, and the bar is about to close. “It's two thousand, Zoro.”

“Eh?” He knows he's been drinking cheap barrel stuff, but... “Don't screw around, what's it really?” His usual tabs are well over five thousand beli, and it's not like he'd held back any tonight.

“Two thousand.”

Zoro's glaring katana at the larger man. Squaring built shoulders at each other.

“Eh, what's the matter? Too much? Do I have enough?” Wiping sauce from his face, the guy right next to Zoro gets out his wad of bills again. Identified two thousand notes to hand across the bar before the green haired man's sputtered that it's got _nothing to do with him not being able to afford it_. “There! Now there's no problem for ya.”

Zoro's mouth works open and closed. Not managing to get anything discernible words off his tied tongue. Sneering, for Blueno chortling at him. Depositing this guy's cash in the till. _What kinda of guy goes around paying random dudes' bar tabs?_ “Who the hell are you?”

“Ah?” Wiping his face on a grey shirt-sleeve. “I'm Monkey D Luffy! Nice to meet'ya!”

The impact of that radiantly beaming face struck Roronoa Zoro. Like the impact of the accident he'd narrowly avoided that afternoon. Jarring him. Body, and presence. Left spinning behind his green eyes, and inexplicably dumb. “Z-Zoro... ah... Roronoa Zoro.” Blueno laughs at the rugged man on his way through the doors into the kitchen, stacks of plates in both hands. Red breaking out across Zoro's face, but the younger's just put two and two together.

“That-! That was Zoro's car!” Pointing at the now switched-off television.

“Y-yea...” There's the hurt. Even if he is wasted. Remembering the various reasons he'd chosen to drown himself in lousy booze. “Ah-, shit...” Zoro's put his arms down on the bar. Lying his dizzy head down on top of them. Understanding a hand is placed down on his shoulder. Squeezing solidly into his sweaty bronze skin. How that touch anchors him to the earth, when he's ready to spin so violently away.

He doesn't let go, either.

 _Luffy_.

 

~~~~~~~~end of _Flashback~~~_

 

“I think that's about it.” Franky's quietly going over what he and Robin might need over the coming weekend they'd planned to spend in Paradise. Their train leaving that afternoon.

“Almost...” Robin busy wrapping a rare orbed golden ingot she'd procured.

 

“Planning a long weekend?” Robin's spun in place, dropped to defense with her treasure clutched to her chest. From the other side of the room, the woman's significant other's drawn a weapon. A half rifle, held in one massive hand. Tralfalgar Law putting his hands lazily up at his sides. He's armed. A polished silver revolver gleaming at his hip. “I've only come to talk.”

“Fuck you!” Robin's made a calculated jump onto the dresser, bed, and landed on her feet beside Franky to sink behind him. “Get outt'a my house!”

“You can't go to Paradise!” Law's shouted back at the much larger man. Dark eyebrows come together. Hands still up, at his sides.

 

Franky doesn't trust Tralfalgar. Not any more than he can pronounce the guy's given name. First he's sort of on their side, then he's signed on with the Marines, then he's teamed up with them... then... “How'd you get in here?”

“I picked the lock on your front access.”

“Why are you here?”

“I've got information.”

The blue haired man's grinding his clefted jaw. Franky considering the cost and value of information. What it might be about, but then... it could only be about Luffy. “ _Why_ are _you_ here?” Spat again, and he's still pointing both wide barrels at the other guy's chest. “I'm pretty sure you did say once, that you _ain't no charity_.” It's a low blow, as the late twenty-something practicing surgeon had technically saved their lives. But the fact he'd even said it at all, while Luffy bled out in front of them...

“I owe favors-ya, this is just one of them.”

“Not one of mine. Robin, Darling, is it one o' yours?”

“Not to my knowledge.” She's stood up against the wall in a dark lace slip. Clutching her delicate artifact in smooth olive arms, as she's listened. “Who did send you here today, Mister Water D Law?” Franky concentrates on not pulling the trigger, aware of that smile that creeps onto the guy's face in response to _his_ lover's voice.

“My... er... _employer_ -ya wishes to remain anonymous.”

“I'm super not in the mood for this. A _name_!” Franky's deep voice resonates through the many angles of his home. Sharpening to an edge on the air, and rattling delicate glass fixtures.

“...” He considers, for a while. Law. Almost a full minute. “Akagami-ya.”

“Shanks?!” Franky's lowered his weapon. Confusion pulling azure eyebrows apart. Lips forming a numb “o” that hadn't quite coalesced as a question.

“Says _stay put_.”

“What?!”

“That's all-ya.” The tall man's turned and gone back down the hallway. Franky's watches him leave out the front door he'd admitted to picking the lock on to get in.

 

Robin stepping forward to lay her artifact down on the table beside their bed. “If Shanks wanted to communicate with us, wouldn't he have had Makino wire me? The line is untraceable.”

“Might be Shanks isn't with Makino right now? I'd just like to know when that snot started playing courier service. Least he could've done was knock.” Gunshots rip the air outside. Very nearby... more than a dozen loud bangs in rapid succession. Getting further away as they're rattled off. Franky pulls Nico Robin to his chest. Muscular arms around her.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~**~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~~~~~**~~~~~~~~~

 

Since coming back together again after two whole years apart, Ace and Sabo have grasped at every shred of privacy they could find. Any moment when they could touch, and be intimate. Explore the others' body, without fear of being interrupted.

 

“What do you mean _Luffy's spending the night with Zoro?_! Isn't it a Rule he sleeps up here with us?”

“Oh?” Magra's chuckled. His hand on the doorknob. “So you heard about that, did you?”

“Dogra told me.” Sabo's back on his feet. Pale hands balled up into tight fists. Fingernails digging into both palms, and he doesn't really know why he's almost shouting. Or why he's shaking.

“Where are they sleeping exactly?” Ace fisted the blankets under him, because standing up still makes him feel like vomiting. “On Zoro's one-ass board in the barn?”

“You know, I think they said something about a backseat...” Grinning hugely as the two older brothers sputter and protest. Finally holding up one calloused palm at them. “ _Enough_. Dadan's already approved this evening's sleeping arrangements. What are you complaining about? Enjoy having the room to yourselves~” Waving suggestively, Magra's slid out their door to join the activity of the house settling in for the night.

 

Sabo's chest heaves as he's stood. Ace still maintaining a death grip on the sheets. “Shit....” Any modicum of alone-time, because all that mattered was them. Right? … …??

 

“Dammit!”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading! Reviews are Awesome!!


	34. Marks

It's bright. Outside the hazed-over car window. Chilly air, and sharp like needles. Dew caught up in spiders' webs, damp in the grass. Glistening along fine fence wire. A door slams somewhere, and Luffy's eyes come open. _Where is he_? _!!_ Intrinsically the first question he asks himself, every morning. Jolted upright, though just as instantaneously assured by familiar black and red leather. _The Kitetsu..._ A set of thick bronze arms snake under the younger man's. Hugging gently into him.

 

It hurts _!!_ In so many ways that he can't and couldn't explain. Even if he thinks about it for hours or days or _years_. But even if he could, none of that matters. How painful it is. Because there's no avoiding the morning that's come. A gold glow cast over the world. Clear, open skies for as far as eyes can see.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~*~**~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~~*~~~~**~~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~

 

Magra's sitting at the counter, working on his second cup of black coffee and turning over the chores list. Checking who's names are allotted which task. “So... what's the word on Luffy and Zoro? Are they an Item on the farm now?” He's chuckled. It would just be another damn funny thing to have everyone in better spirits. They'll need something. A lot about to happen in the next week. That septic job's gonna suck...

“I'll have none of that.” Dadan's shifted her cigarette to the opposite side of her mouth. Red lips sneering. “I forbid you, or anybody else from saying one word about them.”

“Aww?”

“We've been paid, not to mention threatened, to keep a wanted felon _sequestered_.” She's reminded her nephew. Filling two huge steels with coffee, and setting them to steep. “I'm also not _keen_ to draw attention to whatever-it-is that boy's so desperate to not talk about.”

“I have a hard time believing what we've been told, myself. That there's a thing _he_ could have ever done, to get a bounty like they say. Five-hundred Million...” Not that he's not seen the official poster. Magra. The tall man, rubbing at his thick black beard.

“I don't question the numbers, only the beli I collect on 'em.” Dadan's no time to give for dramas and plays between Powers that never were to be. Before their conversation can continue, however. The screen door squeals open, followed by the inner door. Luffy getting his body inside the farm house. His face all red, and tears streaked down both cheeks. Making a weak attempt at wiping them away on long shirtsleeves that were already damp.

 

The young man sniffed a couple of times. Breathing into the backs of his hands. It's almost a minute, when Luffy's rushed forward and around the counter. Pressing his nose into the older woman's apron as he's thrown his arms around her in a great big hug. “Thank you, Dadan.” Choked out so quietly. Turned, and thrown himself up the stairs.

 

Magra chuckles at his aunt. Taking another gulp of warm coffee. “Yea, sure. Haha- Luffy's _just a number._ ” Chortling to himself, as he's gotten up to refill his cup. Curly Dadan left blushed all over her ruddy face. Wiping her eyes, before she's turned. Setting pots and pans to begin the gravy.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~*~*~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~~~~~**~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

Yosaku scratches all his fingers through close cropped grey bristles. Yawning. Woken up in the barn with about fifteen other guys. He and Johnny sign up for this torture every summer, and have done for years. To sleep on hard cots, but get free food. The work breaks both bone and spirit, but the beli's good. Beats the hell out of some of the jobs they've ever done out in the world.

 

 _WHAM!!_ A faint creaking gets everybody who was in bed out. Hurrying towards the window on that side. The source of a great big bang not being lost on any of them, and sure enough....

“Five to one, Zoro's bad mood last the whole day.” Johnny's stood up. Putting his hands behind his head.

“No chance.” Strapping his steel reinforced helmet around his head. Yosaku grins wide. “Magra'll give him doing so much work, he'll settle down from fatigue.” A muffled _Goddamnit!!_ bleeds in from outside.

“Yea~ or ya' two can stop bein' cowards and save us all having to dodge him a'day.” Kiev's slipped a pair of goggles down over his eyes. Gathered gel in his hands to slick into a dark black pompadour. He's from Seven's Water, along with Paulie, and Scholizo. It's their.... what? Fifth contract they've worked on Dadan's farm? Damn... Choruses of early morning agreement grunt around the room for the guy's suggestion. Crossed arms, and stern expressions.

“S-sure.” Green coat flapping about bare knees. Yosaku swallows against the first yellow rays of morning. He and Johnny going outside. The air wetter, and colder than in the bunkroom.

 

_SLAM!! rrrrrip!!! CrUnCH..._

 

Feet all damp for dew, they come not far from where Zoro's Kitetsu sat parked under a low awning built off the back of the barn. There's an old stump next to there. Been around forever, because it wasn't in the way of anything so why sweat to shift it? In times like these, it was good to have around. “Oi, Zoro- you alright?” Johnny's back far enough, he thinks. The both of them.

“Fine.” _WHAM!!_ A few globs of red on that old stump. Splinters pushing out of dry wood. Giving a little more, for every hard blow.

“You're bleeding, Zoro.” His other friend's pointed out, remaining at a distance. The Blacksmith pausing, then. To focus on the backs of his hands. Thin purple lines were beginning to make their way up his wrists. Where the skin paled, and then flushed red again. The beginnings of what will be deep angry bruises.

 

Roronoa Zoro makes a great effort in taking the next few breaths of cool morning air. Fingers curling, he's thrust a fist into the soft decaying wood. Followed by another strike in what built to become near melodic in succession. Tearing his knuckles away, without making a sound.

 

~~~~~*~~~~~~~~~~~~~**~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~***~~~~~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~~~~

 

Ace and Sabo haven't slept hardly at all. Maybe an hour at best. Worry, injury, and embarrassment all grappling for leading cause. The two having curled under the blankets on Ace's bed, with the window open behind them. Curled together in each other's arms, searching each for enough solace that could ease either towards a peaceful sleep. Instead, both had been awake to witness the lightening of the sky outside. The sun breaking gloriously, as always. Throwing a blinding beam directly into their bedroom. A few minutes later, the house began to creak with people getting up and moving around. Pipes rattling, and Sabo wonders who managed to get into the shower that quickly?

 

“Ace.” He's whispered against the pillow after a while. Nuzzled into his fiancé's messy black hair.

“Mmm.”

“You okay?”

He thinks about it a long time. Ace. Long enough for a bunch of loud assholes to walk the length of the hallway outside their door. “Yea.”

“Yea?” The blonde can be allowed his disbelief. He's never understood how Ace gets into fights, let alone made time to imagine what it means after he's settled one.

 

_Clack_

 

Their bedroom door's opened on Luffy wrapped up in a towel, black hair all fluffed out clean. Getting into the room, because the hallway's well and packed with bodies. He stands there a minute. Just inside the room. Brown overbright eyes wide and staring. Blinking, he's thrown yesterday's clothes into the hamper. A smile making it onto his face. “Shi-shi! Morning!”

Sabo's stabbed by that smile. Because not three seconds ago, it wasn't there! “Good morning-.” He and Ace get up out of bed. Luffy's gone to the dresser. Dragging on a pair of jeans. Ace is staring at his little brother, or more precisely at the thick ring left behind by human teeth that's broken through otherwise smooth skin. Darkly bruised around the wound, swollen over his left shoulder.

“Where were you last night, Lu?” Ace asks in what he's hoping is an even, easygoing voice. Not like the screaming, raving maniacism that's going on inside his head.

Luffy gets a red shirt on, and a black hoody on top of that. Checking his pocket space. “Secret.”

“Who bit you?” Sabo's asked instead. Noticing his little brother wince. A pull of that scar on Luffy's face, when his shirt rubs over the open punctures. “Was it Zoro?”

Their little brother gets all the way dressed, lacing up his shoes. He's stood up and pushed out the door without saying anything. Gotten quickly lost in the din of bodies all making their way down to breakfast.

 

Ace sits back down on the bed. Hanging his head in his hands. “Well... just, shit...” Rubbing at his freckled cheeks. He listens to Sabo getting his clothes on. Eventually standing up himself. Hard to keep himself on edge over a past and settled love, when he's a living breathing lover right in front of him. Sabo's white skin aglow for warm morning light. Wavy blonde hair tucked behind his ears, after he's pulled on a blue t-shirt and cargo jeans. Peeking back at Ace with his left eye, smooth scar tissue pinching along his forehead. In time for the other to gather him in his arms, and for a long time they're just stood there in the middle of the room. Fit together. Like they'd always been _just a half_ all their lives up to now.

 

_BAM!_

 

“Hey, guys! Time to-” Sabo smirks internally. Happy he'd gotten dressed right away. Ace... well...

 

 _Ah! Haha-hah!!!_ Something to add to that plaque Magra mentioned last night.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading!! Reviews are awesome!


	35. Blackmail

~~~~~~~~ _it's a dream/also a flashback.... it's a flashback dream_ ~~~

 

Luffy's bleeding so badly, where he's not been burnt black. “Ah _haa_ ~!” Rolling over, more blood pushes out of him. Chopper putting an arm down on his nakama's shoulder in effort to keep him still. Wedging one knee into the older teen's side.

“S – s- _somebody_!!” the sixteen year old's hands are covered in warm red. Holding soaked packing to that still bleeding chest wound. His nakama's skin starting to turning a sour green color. The doctor beginning to question if that means it's too late or not. “Oooi!!” He can't see more than a ten or fifteen feet, for all the dust still settling. A few bodies lying near. They might still be alive. “ _Anybody...?!_ ”

 

Chopper's blinded by tears. Pooling in his eyes, so that he can't see what he's doing. He can't help his nakama. There's just too much blood. He can't hear Luffy's ragged and wheezy breathing anymore, not over the sound of his own heart hammering in his ears. Knowing... that _no one_ is coming for them...

 

 

 

_...Attention...Attention: All Departures for Drum City, Free Alabasta Port, and the City of Paradise, please proceed to boarding gates Two, Eight, and Twenty..._

 

Dark brown eyes open onto the well lit airport lobby. People getting up in other chairs all around. Making steadily lengthening lines for the various flights leaving from Torino's Main Island, bound for the continent.

 

_...please secure all personal items...tickets must be presented prior to boarding..._

 

Using the fake Identification card Usopp had made for him years ago, Chopper's carried on his blue backpack. Sighing internally, that he'd not been searched. Pretty certain there's nothing in there that's strictly _allowed_ on an airplane. Sitting back in the seat to hug the stitched white cross to his chest. It will take almost fifteen hours to reach Drum City, after that he'll risk contacting Robin again.

 

_...Thank you for choosing Kuma Airlines..._

 

~~~~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~~~~~**~~~~~~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~~~~~~***~~~~~~~~~~~*~~~~

 

“We are both very sorry, Mother.” Nico Robin's resting her back against the cool white wall beside the refrigerator in her and Franky's kitchen. Accepting a cool glass of water from her husband, the Den-den receiver held loosely in one olive-skinned hand.

“ _I understand,_ ” Olivia's low voice, so very similar to her daughter's. Or was it Robin that resembled her mother, so closely? “ _Is everything... alright, Robin?_ ”

 

_...click...snap.... snick -click..._

 

It wasn't hard to hear the faint rattle of transmissions as they're being tapped. Something the dark haired woman had learned to recognize long... long before now. “Yes. Everything is just fine. I will arrange for the ingot to be delivered to the Library.”

Moments pass. Time that the Historian realizes she's not fooling her intuitive parent. “ _Take care._ ”

“And you.” The call is ended. Robin putting her head back against a hard wall. Franky's come close to the woman. Gathering her. Either or, unable to push aside the unease in being trapped here. In their own home. Like an island in a turbulent sea. Blind to what may be happening, if anything. Not knowing, perhaps the most difficult to accept.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~~~~~~~**~~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~~~**~~~~~~~~~~

 

Sanji can only recall a handful of evenings that have been more tedious...

 

“Ahh! Come on! One more?!”

“Haven't you shitty Okamas had enough?” Teeth pinch into the filter on his cigarette.

“Oh, don't be like that. Such an adorably sweet _Candy_ , you'll be treated very well~.”

Patty's not keeping very quiet. Back there in the kitchens. The blonde able to hear him and Carne snarfling at him like the pair of buffoons that they are. “I said _no_. You can quit your asking, and get lost already.”

“Oh~?” Elizabeth's fluttered long false eyelashes. Caked lipstick the color of red-red roses on lips that pout. “That's a shame.” Sanji's heard the princess' long fingernails on the counter. “...and Ivan was so _hoping_ I'd have convinced you before he arrived.”

“A-arrive...?” That man is coming here _?!_

 

Tell-a-thousand-tales laughter echoes off the glass paneled front doors of the Baratie. A crowd of bad wigs on top of sequin dresses. Tight pumps at the ends of thick and hairy legs.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~~**~*~~~~~*~~~~~~~~~~~~**~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*~~~

 

“Gonna give us the other one, yea? Once we do this little job for you?”

“Make that one your payment.” A huge arm of rippling muscle decorated with ink and scar tissue. Moving just as slowly as the man spoke. Kaido lifting gallons of ripe aged whiskey to his lips. “Do we have a agreement?”

 

~~~*~~~~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~~~~**~~~~~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~~~~~***~~~**~~~~~~~~

 

Zoro had beaten his knuckles to hamburger, before abruptly ceased. Yosaku and Johnny waiting patiently. For the green haired man's next move. Which turned out to be the outside shower off the back of the barn. Tying his thick green coat around what mattered, and even allowed his friends to coax him inside. Onto a chair at the table they use to play cards. Both hands up on the semi-flat surface as Johnny's getting out the Medical Bag.

“Does it feel broken?”

“No.”

“You sure?”

“Probably.” Zoro's made fists, stretching open torn tissue and making it bleed fresh red runnels down his wrists. “Yea. Not broken.” Johnny's cringed internally that the other doesn't admit notice for the condition of his own knuckles. Bronzed skin torn away from bright pink muscle. A bit of pale tendon visible.

“So what's this all about, Ne?” Getting out needle and thread, and Zoro's already wrinkling his nose for the chemical stink of antiseptic. Yosaku winding silk around his fingers before snipping the lengths he desired. “...somethin' to do with that guy last night?”

Zoro's single jade eyes snaps up, and is snuffed out. Doors closing, being barred. “Keep your mouth shut.” He's growled. Balling his hands subconsciously. The tabletop dotting with thick red, dribbling along the crooks of the man's fingers. “Both of you.” Speaking harrowly. “You and Johnny spread that around too, got it? Nobody says nothing about nothing to nobody.”

 

~~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~~~~**~~~~*~~~~~~~~~~~~**~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~~~~~*~~~~~

 

Marco's late leaving, and just about when he's about ready to go... “Can I help you, yoi?” Those long white coats. Marines always stick out everywhere.

“Perhaps.” Square white teeth glare as brightly as that man's crisp snowy coat. Standing in the driveway in front of a multi-car garage. Bedecked with medals that pull the collar down on that side. So many. Sparkling with polish, and separate gold rope wound along the shoulders means a higher rank. “I was wondering if you could tell me, where I might find Portgus D Ace?”

“Ace, yoi?”

“Your little brother, isn't he? Master Newgate's youngest... _son_.” Said in a sneer. The man in clear repulsion of the construct of sons or fathers.

“That's your business, yoi?”

“Of course it is.” Akainu's grinned widely. Observing a nearby alligator slide into a man-made pool. “The World Government made amnesty for the boy, in being spared execution.” A gross leer appears on the man's face. Revealed, and lit with clarity. Scarred, pitted cheeks. Thick dark tattoos along a corded neck, and beady-small eyes slumbering with eruption. “Nothing was said, about the man.”

Marco's listening closely, his mouth come open and just hangs there. “Wh-at..?”

“Continued protection dictates a certain level of cooperation.” Continues the Marine Admiral, as if he's discussing the weather. “There is an individual we believe is also being 'housed' in the same location as your little brother. Potentially the most dangerous man alive.”

“So this is blackmail, yoi?” How very noble. “What do you want me to do?”

“Oh? I want you bring a wanted fugitive back to Paradise with you. You needn't worry about the details afterword.”

Doesn't need to know, eh? He can already see terrible things happening. Sighing out hard. “Ah...! fine! This great devil got a name?”

“Monkey D Luffy.”

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading! Reviews 'n stuff??


	36. Wanted

~~~~~~~~ Flashback~~~

 

Zoro woke up the day after he'd won the race. With a spectacular hangover, and little stings of white zippers popping about behind closed eyelids. Half a gargled moan, he's stretched both arms. That's when he's noticed he's in... a bed? Soft pillows, warm sheets, and... and _there's another_ _person_ _in that bed with him?!_ Time grinds down. The eighteen year old forgetting how to take in air. Zoro trying to bring tally up to this point, from when he could remember drinking in Blueno's bar... that was _last_ night, _right?_

While the taller, older teen quietly freaks the fuck out, Luffy's woken up. Nesting close into soft folds that are other man's tee-shirt. They're still wearing all their clothes. “Morning, Zoro!” A tight squeeze around a hard body, before that stretchy guy's sprung up and off the mattress. Sliding wicker flip flops onto wriggling toes.

“Huh? ah-... err... M-morning...” Where the hell is he...? Is this a hotel...? How did he get here...?

“Shi-shi! Come on, Zo--ro! Let's _go~_!”

“G-go?” Carding all his fingers through short green hair.

“The big Bull-guy said so. Last night! After Zoro fell asleep on the bar-” Explaining, with both arms crossed over his chest. Having fastened gold buttons on a red coat. A great big smile on his face. “Zoro's car's gettin' fixed up at the garage by the highway.”

“Uh.. yea... So?”

“Shi-shi! That's where _I'm_ going! So Bull-guy said _take care of Zoro for the night, and take him with in the morning so he doesn't get lost_...”

Copper-tan fingers cover Zoro's face. An effort to hide how he's flushed. Flaring absolutely crimson. Sure his ears are glowing like hot embers. Clashing with his hair, so this guy's sure to notice... _dammit_...

However, Luffy doesn't acknowledge his company's discomfort. Or his confusion. Getting hold of Zoro's wrist as they've come out under a wet morning's sunshine. Leading the way up the strip, towards the distant highway. It's where all the industrial commerce was. Everything dripping in oil, or blood, or black gloppy tar. Working cogs, behind everything that glittered in the fine casinos and race tracks at the Twin Capes. Motorcycle and rare race design fabricators came to test their newest, most creative. Drawing to them more and more daredevils, to take part in high beli competition. All of them trying to win big, and die young.

 

“Whooaah! Coool!!” Grandiose statues decorated equally enormous fountains. Sending tall jets hissing up into the air. Rainbows appearing in their spray. Their basins lined with gold. Luffy doesn't let go of Zoro's arm, even as he's ogled the sparkling boulevard.

“ _'che_ – What's with you?” Grumbling under the hand he's using to shade his eyes from the treacherously bright sun. “Like you never been here before?”

“Nmm.” Luffy's nodded his head, eyeing a street sign at the corner of two empty ways. “I've been lots'a places, but never here.” Hurrying along the sidewalk, the raven haired teen muttering numbers of the addresses as they pass.

“Yea? Why're you here, anyway?”

“Shi-shi-shi! I came here ta' see the Devil Child.”

 

~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~~~~**~~~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~***~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

Nojiko's staring at her reflection in the mirror. Drying her hands on a fluffy soft towel while she's stood in the shower room. In the home she grew up in with her mother, and her sister. Yesterday's conversation repeating in her head. Creating a agonizing loop. The older having watched Nami's soft golden eyes. Her sister listening to Zoro. How the blacksmith sat stiffly at their table. A great long scar down his face, and grey with exhaustion. He looked twice his age. Easy. But he refused rest or food. Getting up again, well out the door while the offer echoed into nothing. Bell-mère's lips pressing together.

Not one thing was asked of Nami. Bell-mère quietly washing the cups that had been used. Pointedly going back to the everyday routine of mid-summer. Not something that was difficult to do, as High Season demanded a lot of attention. But no matter how busy it'd gotten. Nojiko hauling hundreds and hundreds of bagged mikans by a horse and cart. Delivered to their Stall, maintained along the freeway. The woman had found no rest that night. No sleep. Instead, she'd stared up at the ceiling. Dark eyes itching, burning like they'd been rubbed with mikan skins. Sick inside her stomach, to know she's being kept in the dark by her own _little sister_.

 

_**BAM** _

 

It hurts all along the outsides of Nojiko's palms. Her fists landing on either side of the bathroom sink. The mirror reflecting the dark blue lines of her tattoos. Adorning the young woman's tanned and defined collarbones. Along her shoulders. Artfully trailed along each arm. Grinding white teeth, Nojiko glowers at her reflection. The last time Nami decided to hide something from her had been about that boy too. Luffy. And that last time....

 

Eyes fly wide, the older sister thrown herself from the bathroom. Bare feet down the hallway carpet. “Nami!!” Bruised hands banging on the hardwood door.

 

The handle is locked.

 

“Nami!!” There's no sound from inside the room. Nojiko considering picking the lock when there are several sound knocks on the front door. Freezing her in place.

Bell-mère had been halfway towards her daughter, and instead straitens herself. Combing fingers through her purple fringe. Miming for Nojiko to tuck quietly into the alcove near the backdoor. Gone to answer the door.

 

“Good Morning, former-Officer Bell-mère-san.”

“Daddy the Father.” Soft eyes fall to the man's hip. She can see the polished pommel of his most visible pistol. A small girl standing there beside him. In a cupcake dress. Colorful frills, and curls of adorable pale-blonde hair. She's his daughter. Carol. As precious as the day she was born. “What brings a bounty-man like yourself to my little orchard?”

The wide brim of his hat is tucked down. Poncho draped across broad shoulders. “Actually, I had hoped to have a word with your youngest.”

 _Nami._ “Oh? And what about?”

He's considered briefly, before handing over a rolled paper with a serious face. Bell-mère unfurling the crackling page.

 

**WANTED**

 

Reading further, the woman's staggered backward until she's put her shoulders against the nearest wall. An extensive list of crimes and infractions followed, beside a picture of her daughter. Posed and smiling for the photographer, on a lounge chair in front of an elegant resort pool. The price on her little girl... sixty-six million beli.

 

Nojiko stands aside for her foster mother coming down the hall. Paper clutched in her hand. Banging hard on the door before she's kicked it in. Sending splinters of wood all over. One step inside is all it takes to understand, and the retired Marine is not surprised at all. To find Nami's bed empty. Curtains fluttering in soft summer breeze, framed around the open window.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! Reviews are awesome <3


	37. Found You

Marco's numb in his hands, holding onto the steering wheel. He'd driven off the Manor grounds obediently, once given the choice of doing that – or being arrested on the spot. He'd only delay Marine Officers, at best. At worst he'd bring an enormous spotlight onto a presently dim past that had almost entirely died out. Had so _nearly_ been forgotten!

 

. _..nothing was said, about the_ man _._...

 

Less gruesome, maybe... but for Justice? It'd be for show. A show that they like to put on, and everyone tunes in to watch. For death. No greater turn out had there been, on the day they put Roger to the spear. Two spears, pierced through his back, to come out crossed at the belly. Red trickling down the high platform. It wasn't quick. It wasn't clean. Marco puts his foot flat to the metal frame of red Vivian Rose he'd borrowed off Vista for the trip. He doesn't put it past Marine Justice to put Ace to death, if they can prove his parentage. _Which they can_ , he grinds his teeth. Roaring up Reverse Highway towards Cocoyashi. If he brings back Ace and Luffy in one car, he has everything that beady eyed Admiral wants. Fuck if he'd do that. He may be _forced_ by blackmail to bring back Luffy, but Ace-

 

“Izou?”

“ _Aye, you better be using the hand's free. Wha'ch you want?_ ”

Marco's adjusted his position in the lane to pass a line of cars, giving a grin. “Wanted to talk to you about a change o' plans, yoi~”

 

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*~~~~~**~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~**~~*~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~*~~~~~

 

 

Luffy came back downstairs onto a packed dining room. Coffee steam and smoke curling above tables, and everything smells like syrup. But for once he's not hungry. All by himself, and he doesn't want to sit at any of these tables with people he only half knows. He's not supposed to know anybody, so he shouldn't get to know them. The only reason he's got brothers is because Sabo'd said what he said... but _Sabo's stupid_... _Ace's stupid_! Near to twisting his neck cleanly around shaking his head, the young man's run to the backdoor. More collided with it than opening it. Somehow managed to get outside on the porch....

...where his world did not improve. Zoro, and a big group making their way to the farmhouse. The Hands that bunk in the barn at night. Luffy's halfway to raising his arm to wave, when he stops himself. Wrist and arm trembling, before he's put his eyes down on wood planking. Curling all his toes in his boots, for the many slow footfalls that take all those guys across the short landing inside to eat. And he can count each one individually, aware of individual gates and strides. Especially Zoro's, but the green haired blacksmith doesn't say a word. Doesn't glance in his direction. Just like he didn't watch his nakama.

 

That was the plan. Because they have to keep going.

 

Luffy's let all the air out of him. Stood on the upper step facing the barn and fields behind it. His ears ringing for the bugs, already up before they ever were. Playing saw instruments, and the birds have honkers and hooters and whoopers. The sun great big and round and yellow. He wonders if the sun has ever felt alone... only just crested the thought when Luffy's pulled sideways. Wad of cloth shoved into between his teeth.

 

“Found you.”

 

An ugly whisper, and a sharp blow to the right kidney. Putting the young man on his knees just below the railing on the porch, drug all the way around where there were no windows. The second blow flashes white at the tops of Luffy's eyes. That's all he'll remember, when asked about it later. A white flash, like forks of lightning.

 

 

~~~~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~~~~~~~**~~~~~~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~~

 

 

Zoro is two steps into the dining room when he's spotted Ace and Sabo coming downstairs. Ignoring Yosaku's attempt at getting the guy over to Dadan for some proper stitching, and instead wrapped a bloodied left hand around his ex-boyfriend's throat. Pinning Ace up against the wall next to a wind-up clock and a back-and-white picture of some sour old woman.

“Zoro-!” Dadan's more bitter than sour. Lit cigarette bobbing over the bacon.

“As you were.” Zoro's growled into a deathly chill, what had swept the dining room all around him. “ _As you were!_ ” And the buzz' returns to the hive. No one was a particular stranger to the Blacksmith's moods. Truthfully, he's a lot _calmer_ than he used to be. The worst being the period before he'd started going out with Ace. And everyone said Ace is what tamed Zoro. But they all took it back. Agreeing that wherever it is he's been these last three years, he's put himself levels beyond. “What~” Zoro's given the other a rough shake that smears blood all over Ace's chin. Whispering, so he cannot be overheard by the room. “~is _He_ doing out there, all by himself?”

“He ran out of our room _all by himself_.” Sabo's told Zoro, getting a hand on the blacksmith's shoulder, and he lets go of Ace.

“You need to go after him.”

“That's what we were doing.” Ace's rubbing his neck, then cringing for the sticky mess all over his neck. “What the hell? What happened to your hand? And why's it so important we go after him right now? Let him cool off, then he can look us in the eye and tell us it was _you_ bit the fuck out of him last night.” In the freckled man's defense, Ace isn't shouting at his former flame. Hissing through his teeth.

“He can't just wander around, it's not safe.”

“We know.” Sabo's blue eyes track the windows, but he can't see his little brother's red jacket. Gone to the backdoor, he's pushed his way outside. Ace at his heels, but Zoro doesn't follow them.

 

The blacksmith turned instead to face the wall, both hands rolled into fists. Not able to claim that much time passes around him, but some must have done. Because when he's looked up, Dadan is standing there. Wearing a frilly flower apron, and a scowl.

“...I said _get yourself into a chair_!” She may have expected him to jolt at the closeness and volume of her voice. But Zoro's attention is so far away, sent far and wide – and getting him absolutely zero results. “ _Zoro_!”

 

Consenting to whatever must be done by others to satisfy their own anxieties. He certainly doesn't need more stitching then what Johnny was able to do. His friends are always so fastidious about things like sutures, and body staples. Zoro walks through the swinging doors into Dadan's kitchen. Sat down at the table he was at last night. Both hands out in front of him, and in the low light with the back curtains drawn.... he really does look a mess.

“What on earth were you doing?”

He's swallowed, copper throat working. “Punching an old stump.”

“ _Oh~?_ That old stump. I thought the two of you missed each other over the years.” Dadan's green eyes take in more than she lets on. It's always been that way. Part of her position. Clear in his one remaining eye that he'd rather be anywhere but where he is right now, but no business getting up and going. So he'll remain there. Worrying inside his skin for every second, but then, he might do that no matter what. “Is there something I should know?” Nearly shouted at the young man, and he only just responds.

“He needs looking after.”

“He's bein' looked after. Whole House, and Hands.” She can't help notice he's clamped his jaw, and it's nothing to do with where she's had to push the needle through. Dragging silk into the other's torn and bleeding skin. “There's more?”

Zoro's forehead is beaded with sweat, the only outward sign he's feeling any of these bloody injuries he's received. Staring sightlessly at the rag Dadan has his left wrist resting on. Gradually turning darker and darker shades crimson. “There is... _always_ more.”

 

 

~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~~~*~*~~~~~~~**~~~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~~~

 

 

The morning is wasting away, just like the fuel in Nami's orange hatchback. It had seen better days even before she'd gone away for three whole years and left it under a tarp at the back of the orchard. Used two tractor batteries to get her running again. Old fuel burping out of the tailpipe like the rot off rotten eggs. Praying every second no one would hear the sound of an engine way out on that side of the estate. And no one did. Nami peeling onto Reverse Highway and she'd gasped, tears running down her face. She'd woken to the banging at her door, but then that man had come. She saw him through the window of her bedroom. Long white coat, and gold shoulders... So the game is over, and now they'll run.

Nami's wiped her face, turned on the radio and let a wash of bad rock from twenty or thirty years ago let her cry in her car by herself. A few miles anyway. She'll dry her face over the next few hours. Sharing eight lanes of high speeds with other blurs of color before she's gotten where she's going. Taken an unmarked exit into the Fringe, where no one who was anyone could be found. Quite possibly the _second_ most safest place in the world...

 

 **Bang! Bang! Bang!** Nami squints for the sun in her gold eyes. The sun's blaze come down the steep roofline of an elegant structure. She's never been inside this house before, only seen the front door once. Even then it had been from the road.

The door is thrown open, and a woman's stood there. Short hair, jet black to match her eyes. Wearing all white over milky smooth skin, a white sword tied at her hip. Kuina had been holding a hand over the hilts, as she'd open the door. Her fingers now relaxing. “Nami?”

“Kuina-,” It's when the redhead becomes aware she's been trembling. Stood outside, and exposed under a clear blue sky. And even though she'd dried her tears, tried to put on a strong face... it's shattered to pieces, and she's fallen against the other woman's breast. “- p-please let me stay here?”

“Huh? I mean, of course you can stay... but why?”

“Marines... they came to the orchard this morning.” She's told her nakama's half-sister. They don't look alike at all, except for the scowl that pinches their eyebrows together.

“They came for you also?” Kurina's eyes widen.

“A-also? W-were you attacked?”

“Fufu~ _attacked_?” She lead her guest further into the house. A construction of many hallways twisting and turning until even she is slightly backwards. Paneled with soft gold lights, and many painting of flowers or plants. Everywhere an affirmation or code of conduct etched in fine calligraphy, more of art than of words. Kuina pulling open a doorway, and invited Nami to follow in after her.

 

Inside were a set of cages along one wall. Made for wild bear, or tigers, maybe? Nami's unsure why these cages are there, but they're occupied by four men.

“Oi! Showing us off to your friends now?”

“That's right.” Crossing her arms, Kuina's back curves. A narrow line with Katana hung graceful at the woman's side as she's strode towards the men in cages. “Does that bother you?”

“What if it does, Bitch?”

“Well, then we must find out what is causing you such discomfort,” A pout of her lips, and suddenly the resemblance is uncanny. Kuina's dark eyes that lilt for speaking in soft, seductive trills. “If it is to hear, then your ears. To see, your eyes. Of taste, your tongue. In feel, your skin. Or just a sour belly? Whichever it may be, the culprit can be _cut_ away.” Bright, shiny steel sings after she's drawn it from its gold-trimmed scabbard. Long arch of a single edged weapon. “Come, tell me? Mr. Leiutenant in this World's Government, what ails you?”

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading!! Reviews are awesome!

**Author's Note:**

> Comments are welcome!


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